Asia Cup will be Sri Lanka’s litmus test

 The trophy gets passed around after Sri Lanka won every single match in the ICC World Cup Qualifier 

• Equals previous best run of ten consecutive wins

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

So, Sri Lanka came through the ICC World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe unscathed and with a 100 percent record winning all eight matches including the final against Netherlands to qualify for a place in the ICC Cricket World Cup in India in October-November.

Going with the two back-to-back wins they had achieved against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka has won their last 10 ODIs on the trot – a feat which they have not achieved for many moons. It equalled their previous record established thrice in 2004, 2006 and 2013-14 when they last went through a purple patch. The opposition they encountered then was somewhat stronger – Australia (1), Zimbabwe (5), UAE (1), India (1), Pakistan (1) and Bangladesh (1) in 2004, England (5), Netherlands (2), Bangladesh (1), Zimbabwe (1) and West Indies (1) in 2006, and Pakistan (3), Bangladesh (3), India (1), Afghanistan (1) and Ireland (1) in 2013-14.

In the World Cup Qualifier, Sri Lanka beat UAE, Oman, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands (2), Zimbabwe and West Indies. 

Sri Lanka carried everything before them and there is nothing like winning to boost the team’s confidence. But a note of caution that one must not get too excited about the victories because the majority of them was not achieved against full member sides but against associate members. The full member teams they faced were Zimbabwe, West Indies and newcomers Ireland – all three of whom they beat quite convincingly.

The benchmark of how good an ODI side Sri Lanka is can be tested during the upcoming Asia Cup tournament. It will be the real litmus test for them. No doubt from where they were a few years ago and now, Sri Lanka has improved as an ODI side in leaps and bounds. If they can now extend their unbeaten run into the Asia Cup as well against quality teams like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, then we can start to talk about our prospects in the World Cup.

The danger here is that after being starved of wins in white ball cricket there is always the danger of getting too carried away by the recent series of success, and going overboard. What we saw during the World Cup Qualifier was that Sri Lanka had a lot of grey areas to address before they can become a fully-fledged ODI side that can challenge the rest of the world. The batting for instance is not stable, especially in the middle and lower orders as we witnessed in the World Cup Qualifier final against Netherlands, where Sri Lanka lost their last seven wickets for 53 runs. There is also concern that Sri Lanka are failing to fully utilise their quota of 50 overs which is unpardonable. They were bowled out under 50 overs by Netherlands (twice), Scotland and Ireland.

There is also Sri Lanka’s fielding, although the ground fielding is excellent the same cannot be said of the catching. Vital catches were missed at crucial points of the game and Sri Lanka were lucky that it was their bowlers who covered up for their batting and fielding lapses and were responsible for their victories.

Even without their key fast bowlers Dushmantha Chameera and later Lahiru Kumara (both injured), Sri Lanka managed to beat all and sundry in the Qualifiers which speaks highly of their bench strength where Dilshan Madushanka, Matheesha Pathirana and Dushan Hemantha played supporting roles at different times to the two match winners Wanindu Hasaranga (22 wickets) and Maheesh Theekshana (21) who finished as one-two in the tournament’s bowling.

One of Sri Lanka’s prime problems in their batting was their top order not firing. By recalling Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne (he should never have been left out of the ODI team in the first place), Sri Lanka found a sound opening pair. Pathum Nissanka blended well with Karunaratne and their presence gave Sri Lanka’s batting stability. Not surprisingly Nissanka (417 runs, 2 hundreds, 2 fifties) and Karunaratne (369 runs, 1 hundred, 3 fifties) finished as the second and third highest run-scorers in the tournament after Zimbabwean Sean Williams (600 runs).

What of the captain Dasun Shanaka? If he was not the skipper would he find a place in the side? Shanaka’s contributions with the bat were poor – all single digits (1, 5, 0, 5, and 1) which certainly does not do justice to his ability as a hard-hitting lower order batsman. As long as the team keeps winning Shanaka’s place will be safe, but he needs to contribute at some point to prove his worth in the side, without allowing the others to do it for him.

One of the significant features of Sri Lanka’s batting was that whenever they were in trouble there was always someone to put his hand up and rescue the team. This is a good sign of a winning side. Let’s hope they can continue in the same vein in the Asia Cup and extend it to the World Cup as well.