Sri Lanka keen to get New Year underway on a high

• Tour important to gain exposure and experience ahead of World Cup: Shanaka
• We will intimidate Sri Lanka with body language: Pandya
• Series commences with first T20I at Mumbai today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Dasun Shanaka (Sri Lanka captain)

Hardik Pandya (India captain)

Sri Lanka’s white ball skipper Dasun Shanaka said the tour of India was important from the point that it would give his team a good look at the venues, conditions and pitches ahead of the 2023 50-over World Cup which will be hosted by India in October.

Speaking at the media conference yesterday ahead of the first T20I against India at the Wankhede, Mumbai, Shanaka said: “With the World Cup it is very much important this T20I and ODI series, because most of the guys haven’t played in India. It is the first tour for many of the youngsters who are currently playing in the national side to learn about the ground situations etc. It is very important to them in this series.”

“LPL (Lanka Premier League) is a good platform for the youngsters, they get international exposure but still it is not in the standard of the IPL or Big Bash. From LPL we can gain only a little bit of a platform for international level. Playing international cricket is very much different. A few of the youngsters are here who have performed well in the LPL. They are looking forward to gaining some experience from this tour.”

“This tour will definitely give us exposure to the grounds and conditions. Playing against India will be good preparation for the World Cup. The first game is very important. India has totally changed their line-up. We also got some experience in our camp. We are looking forward to the first game and doing well to set the tone for the other games.”

Shanaka was of the view that Indian wickets are better than the ones in Sri Lanka and said that the batsmen will use the conditions more in India.

Talking of the opposition Shanaka said: “India is always a better side, what we need to play is good cricket. It’s always tough in India, but still we’ve got a good team. We didn’t have a good T20 World Cup so we are looking to step up in the New Year and look to perform well in the series.”

“In T20 cricket it depends on the day, where an underdog can come up and do well. We’ve got the confidence in us to beat any side on our day. We need to maintain the standards, the quality of cricket that we play. India has always been a very good team against whomever they play. It’s our team that we need to control.”

India’s new T20I captain Hardik Pandya whilst saying that his New Year resolution was to win the World Cup, he also made it clear that his team will intimidate Sri Lanka with body language.

“We will make them feel that they are in India, I can assure and promise you that they will feel that they are playing an international team India in India,” said Pandya. 

“That from my boys, from my side it’s going to be clear, we don’t need to go and sledge them, just our body language is enough for them to feel a little bit intimidated.”

Speaking further, Pandya said: “They (Sri Lanka) are a very exciting team, with a lot of talent. You can see a lot of emotion is also there because of what happened in the past in the country. That kind of gave them more motivation to go out there and be in a zone where they are ready to do anything and everything possible. They played like a group, like brothers. Sri Lanka is a very good team. We hope we will have a clash which entertains everyone.”