Consistency is what we lack: Coach Silverwood

Sri Lanka Cricket Head Coach Chris Silverwood during the post-match briefing on Thursday

BENGALURU: Inconsistency has been part and parcel of Sri Lanka cricket since the national team’s white ball decline started after the 2015 World Cup, and sad to say that even eight years after, it still persists.

Giving reasons for Sri Lanka’s abysmal performance at the 2023 Cricket World Cup where they finished ninth in the league with only two wins and seven losses, a position that has deprived the team from participating in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan, Head Coach Chris Silverwood said: “Inconsistency. I think it would be fair to use that word. We’ve played some good cricket along the way, and we’ll look back on certain games and rue missed opportunities, to be honest. There have been certain games during this campaign that if we’d have taken the opportunities that were put our way, it could have looked a lot different. But the fact is that we have been inconsistent and it’s something that we’ve been working on for a long time and something we need to continue working on. So, I think inconsistent is a word we can use.”

“Every big campaign comes with its pressure. What you have to do is try and plan the best you can, try and prepare the players the best you can. Other than that, there’s not a lot else you can do,” continued Silverwood. “That’s what we’ve done. We’ve tried to stick to the process. We have a good game plan in place that has worked for us in various campaigns. And we’ve got to keep believing, really. Again, during practice sessions here, we’ve done the best we can to prepare. But unfortunately, that inconsistency has followed us onto the field. We’ve had results that at times could have gone our way had we taken the opportunities. So, there’s pressure in every campaign. There’s not a lot you can do about that.”

“This campaign has been disappointing for us, but if we look at previous campaigns before that I’ve been involved in, certainly the win percentage has gone up. What we’ve tried to do here is try and keep a camp together, keep focused on what we’ve been trying to do and obviously try and win. That’s the best we can do.”

Sri Lanka faltered in all three departments in their failed campaign.

“It’s a tough one on batting. As you say, it’s happened a couple of times now, a few times. It’s something that certainly happens during the debrief, when we get back and when we dissect what’s happened in this tournament,” said Silverwood. “It’s something that we have to look at and we have to find some answers because clearly, we need to start putting runs on the board on good wickets and putting other teams under pressure. And we haven’t done that.”

On the number of catches that were floored – 16, Silverwood said, “Yeah, it’s frustrating because I mean certain catches that we’ve put down during this tournament have cost us heavily. It’s again something that we’re constantly working on. Our Fielding Coach is constantly working on that and trying to obviously push the standards higher. But clearly there’s still work to be done. I mean, we are getting ourselves in positions where there’s more catches coming our way. We’ve been brave and going for half chances more, but clearly, we have to start hanging on to these if we want to start turning games in our favour.” When asked what Sri Lanka can draw from the World Cup, Silverwood responded, “There’s always something to look forward to. What we have to do now is, obviously, let the emotions settle a little bit. And then, have a good debrief, dissect what’s happened and have a look at what we can learn from this and what we can take into the next phase. The positives that we need to take from this now, is how do we best prepare the boys and the generations that are coming through to actually compete in the next World Cup and make sure that come that World Cup that we are competing and we’re ready. We have all our best players available and we can put our best foot forward.”

The Sri Lanka cricket team returned home yesterday after an unsuccessful World Cup campaign – Pix by T.K.G. Kapila

Individually, Sri Lanka had some good performers with left-arm fast-medium bowler Dilshan Madushanka topping the list with 21 wickets (avg. 25.00) in his first World Cup. Amongst the batsmen Sadeera Samarawickrama 373 runs (avg. 53.28), Pathum Nissanka 332 runs (avg. 41.50) and Charith Asalanka 288 runs (avg. 36.00) all of them in their first World Cup and skipper Kusal Mendis 294 runs (avg. 36.66) faring well. Samarawickrama, Asalanka and Mendis each scored a hundred as well. Veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews brought into the squad late did his bit for the team topping the bowling averages with six wickets (avg. 17.83) and he had the best economy rate amongst the Lankan bowlers – 4.82.

The key failures were the two openers Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne to forge a good opening stand with Nissanka, the poor form of Dhananjaya de Silva (with both bat and ball), spinner Maheesh Theekshana, who without his spin partner Wanindu Hasaranga was hardly effective in his new role as a wicket-taking bowler, and the inconsistency of Kasun Rajitha.

Injuries also played a part in Sri Lanka’s disappointing performance with the absence of Hasaranga, and Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara, Matheesha Pathirana, Dasun Shanaka all getting injured at some point of time during the World Cup.