What went wrong for Sri Lanka ?

After two comprehensive victories in the T20s, Sri Lanka are struggling to win a game in the ODI series against Australia. Sri Lanka won the T20 series with splendid performances from skipper T.M. Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena, Dilruwan Perera & mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis. But what went wrong for Sri Lanka in the ODI series ? 

 

Since the retirements of great batsmen like Arjuna & Aravinda, Sri Lanka did not had a good solid middle order. But we can assume that problem will gets solve in near future with very talented young prospects like of Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunarathna, Lahiru Thirimanne & Bhanuka Rajapakse. Chandimal already has got a permenent place in the side. But do Sri Lanka use his talent the way it should be ? 

 

Chandimal came in to the side as a number 3 batsman. But since the 5 th ODI against England he had to bat at number 5. Surprisingly team management did not wantted to have him in the side for Asia Cup or World Cup stating that he should bat at number 3 or 4 & there is no use of him at 5. Frankly Chandimal has never played at 5 in school level, club level or inter provincial level. At school time he was an opening batsman & now he is battin at 3 in club level & inter provincial level. So we can see there is some problem in the Sri Lanka's batting order. 

 

Why Chandimal cannot bat at number 3 ? Answer is simple. We have got two of the best batsmen in the world at 3 & 4. So there are 3 choices for the team management. 

 

 

1. Sangakkara & Mahela batting at 3-4 and Chandimal at 5. 
2. Dropping Chandimal & bring in another suitable batsman at 5. 
3. Sangakkara and/or Mahela changing their batting possition/s and Chandimal at 3 

 

 

 

• Solution 1 :- 

 

At the moment we are experiencing the results of this. Specially in a huge ground like Hambantota you got to milk the bowling more than playing big shots. But what we have seen in the last match was a big shots player - Chandimal coming to bat at 5 after the power play overs. 

 

What are we doing ? An inexperienced talented youngster throwing to a position where he has never played before at any level ? Remember what happened to talented Kapugedera. Team management & senior players should pay attention to this problem ! 

 

 

• Solution 2 :- 

 

Then the problem is who is that number 5 batsman ? Are we go back to that failed middle order ? 

 

 

• Solution 3 :- 

 

This is not a new thing for Sri Lanka. In the past senior players like Arjuna Ranatuna & Aravinda de Silva did this sacrifice for their juniors like Marvan Atapattu, Russell Arnold, Mahela Jayawardena & Kumar Sangakkara. At the end of their careers Aravinda had to bat at 5 who batted at 4 before & Arjuna had to bat at 6-7 who batted at 5 before. Those greats were so generous to their juniors & team. 

 

I would chose Solution 3. It should not be that difficult to adapt for that role to great batsmen like Sangakkara and Mahela. Once the late South African and Pakistani coach said your best batsman should bat at 5 in ODIs. In my mind Mahela Jayawardena is the perfect man for that role. Without doubt he is the Sri Lanka's best batsman against spin. Also he has that natural talent to improvise and milk the bowling. Also if he wanted, it will not make much difference by Sangakkara at 5. 

 

Chandimal is a rare talent. Probably the best young batsman we had after Sangakkara and Mahela. Management should handle cautiously young players like him. Also senior players like Sangakkara and Mahela should protect these youngsters. At the moment these twos are the fathers of Sri Lankan team. Maybe they will not get much opportunities to score more centuries if they gave up their batting positions. Therefor they will not make the amount of money they used to make from the IPL. But they have to do this for their country. This is Sri Lanka's cricket culture. In the past, our seniors did that for their juniors when needed.