Charith Asalanka Sri Lanka’s level-headed cricketer

• Says playing on flat tracks is what we need to prepare for ICC events

If there is one cricketer that Sri Lanka can rely on to pull the side out of trouble or get them to a match-winning total it is Charith Asalanka, the number five batter in the Sri Lanka ODI side who does his bit for the team quite efficiently without raising much fanfare.

Asalanka may not look pretty at the crease. He does not have the grace of Dhananjaya de Silva, the fluency of Kusal Mendis or Sadeera Samarawickrama or the competence of Pathum Nissanka, but he delivers for his team when it matters.

On Sunday it was his innings of 97* that paved the way for Sri Lanka to top 300 plus for the second consecutive time and beat Afghanistan by a comprehensive margin of 155 runs in the second ODI played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The win gave his team an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

“Very pleased with the effort to finish the series with a game to spare. We would like to finish off the series with a 3-0 win,” said Asalanka at the post-match press conference after picking up the Player of the Match award.

“Number five is a pressure position. You can be in at ten runs for three wickets or 200 for three. I have played about five games, and I have been getting a lot of input from the coaches about how to go about things. Pleased with the way I have done. Although Kusal and Sadeera were dismissed in quick succession, they had maintained a good rate. The plan was to bat till the 40th over. Janith (Liyanage) took the pressure off me, and we were able to go at a run a ball and that partnership enabled us to get to 300.”

About missing out on a worthy century, Asalanka said, “I had the century on my mind. I thought the ball went to the gap and I wanted to get two runs. Wanindu (Hasaranga) wanted me to play the last ball, but I heard that late. We were attacking at that point, and we were looking at 320.”

One of the prime reasons for Sri Lanka’s constant batting failures in the Cricket World Cup in India and in matches leading up to that event was the failure of the top order batsmen to put decent totals on the board. The preparation of pitches at home had a lot to do with it, leaving the batsman in two minds whether to trust it or not. With this sort of mindset, the batsmen didn’t have the confidence to go and play freely as they would have liked. Having analysed the failures Sri Lanka has now started to prepare flat tracks where the batsmen are able to score easily, and the bowlers are made to think on how to take wickets on such tracks.

It is one of the reasons why Sri Lanka who have struggled to get to 300 in a ODI innings and at times been dismissed inside their quota of 50 overs have scored back-to-back totals in excess of 300 in the ongoing series against Afghanistan.     

“After the World Cup, we spoke about pitches a lot,” said Asalanka. “Those wickets we couldn’t get 300 runs. But since then, we have got good wickets. The last game we got 380 and this game 300 again. This is what we need to do. If we are going to get flat wickets for ICC events, we should play on flat wickets. Our bowlers are also learning the art of bowling and containing sides on good wickets.”

“If you bat well and score runs in this heat you can put pressure. When you bowl under lights, it helps the seamers a bit. But it can go either way. Sometimes things might not go your way when the dew is there. The partnership between Rahmat (Shah) and Ibrahim (Zadran) was a bit of a headache. I was chatting to Kusal, and we expected a close game. We wanted to keep overs of our best bowlers towards the end. We wanted to leave about 100 runs in the last ten overs for them. Once the dot ball pressure came, they cracked under pressure. Wanindu was awesome today and so were the seamers to create that pressure.”

Asalanka was the non-striker when Pathum Nissanka created history by becoming the first Sri Lankan to score a double century in ODI cricket in the first ODI.

“I really like to watch Pathum bat. Absolutely fabulous knock. I really enjoyed it. Nobody had scored a double hundred before. Glad I was out there in the middle when it happened,” said Asalanka.

Batting at number five Asalanka has accumulated 1741 runs at an average of 45.81 and an excellent strike rate of 91 with three centuries and 11 fifties. The 26-year-old left-hander has been appointed vice-captain in the two white ball formats (ODI and T20I). Time will tell when he takes over the reins how much Sri Lanka will prosper under his leadership.