Sri Lanka gear up for T20 World Cup

Sadeera Samarawickrama and Matheesha Pathirana

Selector on tour and Chairman of selectors Upul Tharanga, Kusal Mendis, Asitha Fernando and Maheesh Theekshana

• Play Netherlands in first warm-up game today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Having spent time in USA for the best part of two weeks, Sri Lanka cricketers are gearing up for their first match on American soil when they take on the Netherlands in a T20 World Cup warm-up match at Lauderhill, Florida on Tuesday commencing 8 p.m. (SLT).

In fact, Sri Lanka have three matches at this venue – a second warm-up game against Ireland on 31 May (8 p.m. SLT) and the ICC T20 World Cup Group D match against Nepal on 12 June (5 a.m. SLT 13 June).  

Today’s warm-up match against the Netherlands is important to size up the opposition because Sri Lanka will be meeting the same opponents on 17 June at Gros Islet in the West Indies in a T20 World Cup Group D fixture (6 a.m. SLT 18 June).

After spending virtually ten days at Morrisville Facility in North Carolina, the Sri Lanka team officially moved to their designated hotel in Florida on Saturday where they were joined by two other team members Kusal Mendis and Asitha Fernando who had arrived there about four days ago.

Sri Lanka Team Manager Mahinda Halangoda said that five others that included Maheesh Theekshana, Janith Liyanage, Nuwan Thushara along with cricket consultant Sanath Jayasuriya and throw down coach arrived on Saturday.

Sri Lanka has two more players yet to join them to complete their squad - fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera and leg-spinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth who are both involved in the IPL. Chameera played one game for Kolkata Knight Riders who emerged IPL champions on Sunday, and Viyaskanth three matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad who were the losing finalist.

Surmising about the practice sessions that have taken place so far Halangoda said, “I wouldn’t say it was very good preparation but decent preparation. The main thing was for us to get out of that jet lag. It was terrible. In the first couple of days, we found it very difficult to get back to normalcy. There is a 10-hour difference between here and Colombo. Including the 12-hour layover in Dubai, overall, it took us about 32 hours to reach the USA.”

“In Morrisville, practices were okay, but it was hampered by a bit of rain on the last day. When we arrived, it had also rained but we had 2-3 days of practice. In Florida it is really hot here. There is hardly any sweat, but the heat burns you. Today (Sunday) it was 35-36 degrees Centigrade. This is the first time we have been here (Florida) and had a practice session. The side wickets given to us were decent. Practice was very good. Because of the heat, the players were a bit uncomfortable. It’s going to be really tough for us. The only thing is we are playing two warm-up games here and we have to play Nepal as the third T20 World Cup game.”

Halangoda said a couple of the players were still recovering from their injuries – fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana (hamstring) and Captain Wanindu Hasaranga (heel).

“Pathirana will be ready for the first game. Hasaranga has more or less got treatment. They took him to a specialist in Dubai. They have put a padding under the arch on the foot that he lands. He lands at an angle, and they have put the padding to get it even so that he distributes his weight evenly, instead of landing on one side. It will take some time, but he is coping up at the moment. I don’t think it will have any impact on his bowling. I didn’t see it at practice.”