Fearless cricket key to uplift ourselves says new ODI skipper Kusal Perera

Kusal Perera – Sri Lanka’s fearless 

ODI skipper

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed One-Day International (ODI) captain Kusal Perera wants his players to follow his example and play fearless cricket to lift the team from where it has fallen. Sri Lanka, one-time World Cup champions, have plummeted in the white ball format to be placed ninth in the ICC ODI rankings.

In a major shake-up to lift the country from the depths it has tumbled to, the national selection committee has given Perera the task of making the changes to the team by appointing him captain for the upcoming three-match ODI series in Bangladesh.

“I play my cricket fearlessly and I have been successful at that. I want my team also to follow my example,” said Perera in a virtual media conference yesterday. 

“If you play fearless cricket, the success percentage is high. If we are to make a change to our cricket, we must play cricket fearlessly giving your 100%. You cannot guarantee that you will succeed every time, but the percentage of succeeding is high. If the players can do that, with the talent we have in this team, we can change a lot of things.”

“You can’t win if you think you are going to lose. If you play to keep your place in the team then you are not giving your 100%. If we play fearless cricket, to a great extent, we can change many things,” Perera continued. 

“I tell my players if they can contribute 100%, to go and do it fearlessly; sometimes it can go wrong, but most of it can go right. At practice, we play fearless cricket, we should do the same in the middle. You must know your strengths and weaknesses. If the players have that understanding, we can play fearless cricket. Whoever coaches or whoever captains, all 11 players must contribute. It is that contribution that wins or loses a match.”

Captaincy brings responsibility

Questioned about accepting the responsibility of captaincy, Perera said: “I have been appointed to the captaincy because of my services to cricket and with my experience in one-day cricket I have been given some responsibility. If you look at the team it’s a new combination, the selectors have been keen to give young players an opportunity. 

“Along with them, there are also some experienced players. If you look at our bowling unit, it is really good, we have a little inexperience amongst the fast-bowlers, but if you look at it as a unit, it is a new team with a lot of young players. We are a good fielding unit, because it is a young side. I hope to see a big improvement in the fielding on this tour and expect a lot of new things to happen with this team.

“When the selectors appointed me as captain, they told me that they were going to make changes with the 2023 World Cup in mind and that they were going to pick a lot of youngsters and give opportunities to them. What they expect from me is more responsibility with the captaincy. I sometimes score a 50 or a 60 and get out. They want me to convert those scores into a 100. I personally agree to that because if I can score a hundred the chances of the team winning are great. 

“Every match you cannot score a hundred, but if you get a good start, you have to go and score big and finish the match off. They expect that from me,” he said.

Perera succeeds Dimuth Karunaratne to the ODI captaincy. Karunaratne was brought in for the 2019 World Cup when there was some disunity in the team, and he did a reasonably good job in binding the side together.

“When we play, we play as a team. Every team has small issues. When Dimuth captained, we supported him. He doesn’t have anything personal against any player, but there can be small issues inside the team. At training, I don’t see any problems within the team, but sometimes small issues can crop up. We must know how to get over them without affecting the team performances. I hope as much as they supported Dimuth they will also support me,” Perera said.

Give 100% to win

Perera is confident that if his team gives 100% effort on the field, they can get a winning result against Bangladesh.

“If you look at Bangladesh, they have played the same team right throughout, so experience wise they are slightly ahead of us. But we can’t look at experience, we must somehow try and beat them. Most of the players in our team have played first-class cricket, what they lack is international experience. What our players need to do is try and replicate what they have done in first-class cricket at international level. Bangladesh has home advantage, because they are playing in their territory, but the conditions are similar to what we have. If the players back themselves and give 100%, we can get a winning result.”

Perera, who missed the tour to West Indies after failing a fitness test and then suffering a back injury, was confident that he has recovered from his injuries to play at his best.

“When I did my first fitness test, I was one minute slow and then I had a back injury, so I didn’t go to the West Indies; but in that time, I did a lot of rehab work and got through my fitness test. I cannot say that I am 100% free of injuries, but I can say that I have improved 75%. Not going on that tour must have been a blessing in disguise. I have done quite a lot to prevent myself from getting injured in the future,” said Perera.