Sri Lanka’s team members pose with the trophy after winning the third and final ODI between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy – AFP

• Says the resilience of the players against Zimbabwe was fantastic

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) should be thankful that they have in Rumesh Ratnayake a coach who is ready to take up the challenge at every beck and call.

Ratnayake is currently playing the role of interim head coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team until SLC appoints a suitable successor to Mickey Arthur. It is not a role that Ratnayake is unfamiliar with, but one that he has time and again obliged SLC with whenever they get into awkward situations like they have at present.

“I am a coach, I love to do anything. I have gone through the mill, and I am ready. If Sri Lanka wants me to undertake any assignment as coach, I put my hand up. I am up for anything really and I am enjoying it at the moment,” said Ratnayake.

“I have been doing this makeshift thing since 2011. I am used to it. I have spent a lot of time with the national team, and I know what the needs and requirements are and how it could be done. I’ve worked under many coaches, and I’ve also seen their strengths and their downside of things. It’s knowing how you get the message across to the boys,” he said.

Ratnayake’s latest assignment was handling the Sri Lanka side for the recently concluded three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe. He was not happy with the lines and lengths of the bowlers in the first two ODIs, where they allowed Zimbabwe to get to 300, but praised their effort to win the series 2-1.

“I was disappointed with the way we bowled in the first two ODIs. Our execution with the exception of the last ODI was poor. With our bowling we cannot give them more than 240 runs. We had names but names do not count anything if you don’t execute it. I wanted it in every game. That’s where we sort of lack that consistency, bowling well in all the games,” said Ratnayake.

“It is consistent to be in the right mind set – switching on and switching off, something we forget, I don’t know. We have it in us, but we need to bring it on consistently and make it a habit. If we don’t make it a habit it never would come out. We have to inculcate those habits for it to come out in all three departments. If you see some of the other teams in the world, the top ranked ones, their execution is excellent. There is no excuse why we can’t be there. To me the most important thing is execution. With execution you are mentally strong and can plan all your tactics.”

Ratnayake said that beating a full-strength Zimbabwe side with at least eight regular players unavailable for different reasons was a creditable achievement.

“I thought the resilience of the guys who came through was really fantastic,” said Ratnayake, a former spearhead of the Sri Lanka fast bowling attack. “Player like Kamindu Mendis, as a makeshift no. 3 he did his job in the second match. We were missing out on big names such as Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Avishka Fernando, who was a big miss. People should know this was not the best we could have put out because of COVID-19, skin folds and other aspects. The performance shows the courage, the resilience of the boys that when you are given a chance you have to make use of it. Our bench strength is good, but we shouldn’t stay there, we should not be satisfied with that, we need more, we need quality for quality and potential for potential.”

Ratnayake said that as much as they wanted to win the series against Zimbabwe, getting those points for wins was equally important to keep Sri Lanka in the hunt to qualify for a place in the top eight of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League.

“We needed to get all the points that we could, and you cannot underestimate a team like Zimbabwe. You would have seen how strong their bowling was. Those guys really scored, only in the last game we came out trumps and they succumbed to it. We wanted the points, and we are very concerned about it.”

National Super League kicks off with two matches today