Follow UsThere was an evident excitement and build-up to India’s clash against Sri Lanka. A total 12 years later, these two teams were playing at the Wankhede, a venue where India incidentally also won their last World Cup title.
But as it turned out, the clash was just a sequel to the Asia Cup finals earlier in the year. Chasing 358, Sri Lanka were on the receiving end of some scintillating new-ball display, as the Indian bowlers ran through the Sri Lankan top-order with a contribution of just two runs from the top five, as they ended up scoring just 55.
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In the aftermath of the blow-out loss, Sri Lanka’s assistant coach, Naveed Nawaz, insisted that this is not a “decline” of Sri Lankan cricket. Out of the four times Sri Lanka have been bowled out for a score under 100 this year, three occasions have come against India, a team that has been a bogey team for them.
“Well, it's a cause of concern for sure, but I don't see it as the decline of Sri Lanka cricket,” Nawaz said in the post-match press conference.
“We've got a young group of players; we've got only a few guys who have played over 100 ODIs here in this group as well. So, I think it's a rebuilding stage where we are, a couple of new players are still learning the trade I would say.
So, we have some exciting prospects back home and also in this group and I hope they'll take every opportunity to learn from the mistakes done and move forward and do well in the future. So that's the only hope that we have,” he added.
Sri Lanka’s hopes of a World Cup semi-final spot are already out of the window. But with the tournament playing a vital role in teams qualifying for the 2025 Champions Trophy, it is important for the Island-nation to focus on qualifying for that tournament.
“I think it's going to be important that we finish above the eight to qualify for Champions trophy. So, like they say, we've got to find a factor to motivate the boys and keep them alive because we had the same issue in June when we played the World Cup qualifiers. So, there was no guarantee when we went into Zimbabwe to qualify for the World Cup,” Nawaz added.
“We had to win all our games and as well we came to the finals to qualify for this tournament. So, I guess we've crossed that barrier and we've got a pretty young team as I told you before. So, we will get back and we will get the boys motivated and get back in and somehow see what we can do in the next two games, try, and bring out our best cricket.”
One silver lining for Sri Lanka throughout the tournament, and in the clash against India, was the left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka.
Madushanka, who has risen through the ranks for the Islanders, has made an immediate impact with the ball in the tournament, picking up a wicket three times in his first over. On Thursday (November 2), he struck early to remove the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma before snapping a five-wicket haul, which took his wicket tally to 18, the most for any bowler in this year’s competition.
“Yeah, he's (Madushanka) been doing really well for the last one year or so since he was graduated from the under-19 into the national team. He's held on to his nerve pretty well today and bowling, after he was being hit for a couple of fours as well, came back in the second spell and bowled really well, mixing it up in the depth as well,” he added.
There has been an evident difference in the skill gap between the teams in the top half of the table and the bottom half of the table. Nawaz agreed and reckoned that it is why Sri Lanka did not get automatic qualification for the tournament and had to scrape their way through the qualification stage in Zimbabwe.
“Indeed, there is certainly a skill gap, which is why we had to participate in the World Cup qualifier matches before entering the main World Cup competition. This gap became particularly evident when we faced the top teams,” he opined.
One of Sri Lanka’s long-standing issue has been the form of their openers. While Sri Lanka started the tournament with Kusal Perera (94 runs), they replaced the swashbuckling opener with a more traditional Dimuth Karunaratne (15 runs). However, neither worked for them at the top of the order.
“Additionally, I believe there are a few shortcomings in our batting lineup. There were some minor issues in our opening batting, and we also noticed some small deficiencies in the positions of number six and number seven,” he added.
Alongside that, injury to their skipper Dasun Shanaka has made their lower-order weak, something that they haven’t quite been able to recover from.
“We tried to address and improve these areas, but unfortunately, we didn't get the expected performances from Kusal Janith or Dimuth Karunaratne.”