Champion all-rounder Hasaranga laments not playing in a World Cup

The Sri Lanka team, winners of the ODI series 2-0

 Player of the Match Wanindu Hasaranga

Player of the Series Janith Liyanage

• Looks forward to leading his country in T20I series against Zimbabwe

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Wanindu Hasaranga showed what Sri Lanka had missed in the past five months or so when he single-handedly demolished Zimbabwe with a career best seven-wicket haul to give his team a win in the third ODI and the three-match series 2-0 at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

A hamstring injury that later needed surgery prevented Hasaranga from participating in the Asia Cup as well as the Cricket World Cup and his absence was badly felt in the two tournaments.

“The injury is not something which I picked up during the LPL, but while training,” said Hasaranga after taking the Player of the Match award. “I got injured in the LPL and could not play the final, but after that I recovered from the injury. While I was running during training I got injured again, that’s how I missed playing in the World Cup. I have still not played in a one-day World Cup tournament. As a cricketer I feel it’s rather unfortunate. After the 2019 World Cup I played in ODI cricket for four years and when the World Cup was around the corner I got injured. Every cricketer wants to play in a World Cup, I am sad I could not. But there is no point delving into the past, what we should do is to concentrate and win with this team.”

About his performance Hasaranga said, “I am extremely happy to have performed the way I did in my first match after being on the sidelines with an injury for five months. This is a new team and it’s good to begin 2024 with a series win. I have recovered 100 percent from the injury, otherwise with the kind of surgery that I underwent I would not have been able to play. I played a couple of domestic matches before today’s match.”

Hasaranga’s outstanding bowling in the third ODI was a good start for him before he leads his country for the first time in an international series after being appointed as the new captain of the Sri Lanka T20I side. He will lead Sri Lanka in the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe starting at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. 

“I don’t think I will be under any pressure as Captain. I have led teams in the LPL for the past two years and we won the LPL last year under my captaincy,” said Hasaranga.

In that victory, Hasaranga played the stellar role for champions B-Love Kandy leading them from the front with both bat and ball to finish as the leading run scorer with 279 runs (strike rate 189.79) and leading wicket-taker with 19 wickets (economy rate 5.51).

“I have always looked at how I can contribute to the team as a captain or a player without putting myself under any kind of pressure,” said Hasaranga. “We have a T20 World Cup coming up in five months. As the Captain I want the best T20 players in the country in the squad. We will need the experience of senior players in the World Cup. My objective is to get the support of the senior players as well as the others and perform well in the World Cup and win.”

Hasaranga found the value of having experienced players in the side like Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal. Mathews led B-Love Kandy to victory in the LPL final when Hasaranga got injured and played an integral part in their success scoring 210 runs and picking up seven wickets, while Chandimal contributed 259 runs. Mathews has been recalled to the national T20I squad after three years for the upcoming series against Zimbabwe.  

Zimbabwe Captain Craig Ervine said, “Had a decent start before the rain, but Hasaranga was special. During the day, conditions were easier to bat. It got difficult as the evening went on. Our bowlers did well, hit good areas but couldn’t get on top. Our options against spin were limited. The T20Is starting at 6.30 will be interesting. Hope to work on that heading into the T20s and be able to score freely.”

The series win, even though it is against low ranked Zimbabwe, is a morale-booster to kick-start the New Year after a failed World Cup campaign where Sri Lanka won just two out of nine matches.