Sri Lanka’s T20I woes: Batting the Achilles heel

Sri Lanka last played England in October 2018 at the R. Premadasa Stadium where they lost by 30 runs

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

England have named a 16-strong squad to take on Sri Lanka in the upcoming three-match T20 International series and the side captained by Eoin Morgan looks a pretty strong one despite the absence of players in the calibre of Ben Stokes (broken finger) and Jofra Archer (elbow). In fact, England’s T20I squad looks much stronger and balanced in batting than their Test team that just lost a two-match series 1-0 to New Zealand.

England are currently the no. 1 ICC ranked T20I side and it is a tough ask for Sri Lanka, ranked eighth, to turn the tables on them considering their run-up to the three-match series.

Since whitewashing Pakistan 3-0 in October 2019, Sri Lanka registered only one win in the following 11 T20Is – that came earlier this year in March, when they defeated the West Indies at Coolidge Cricket Ground by 43 runs.

In four series since that Pakistan victory, Sri Lanka has been whitewashed 3-0 by Australia (away), 2-0 (1 NR) by India (away), 2-0 by West Indies (home) and 2-1 by West Indies (away). So, it is against this rather modest track record that Sri Lanka will be taking on Morgan’s men in their own conditions.

England on the other hand have lost only two of their last 11 T20I series since 2018, and those two defeats have come at the hands of India in 2018 and in their last series played in March.    Sri Lanka have not beaten England in a T20 International for the past seven years. But having said that, the two countries have met in T20Is only thrice since 2014, all three matches won by England. Sri Lanka have not played England since October 2018, when they lost a one-off game at the R. Premadasa Stadium by 30 runs.

England have won the last three meetings between the two countries, with Sri Lanka’s last win over England coming in 2014, a 9-run win at the Oval.

For Sri Lanka, this series is important to gain confidence ahead of the T20 World Cup in October where the 2016 T20 World Cup champions and two-time finalists will have to qualify for the Super12 alongside with several associate nations.

In recent times, Sri Lanka’s weak point has been their batting; they have simply not been able to put up the runs required to give their bowlers a chance at the opposition. Their highest total in their last 10 completed matches is 171, while they have passed the 150-run mark on only three occasions. Piling on to that misery is the fact that they have on two instances failed to bat out the 20 overs, which more or less sums up where Sri Lanka’s main problem lies.

Sri Lanka’s new white ball captain Kusal Perera has called on his players to play fearless cricket, to carry the aggression they display in the nets through to the middle – which they did in the third and final ODI against Bangladesh and won. Sri Lanka would like to carry that form into the England series as well.

According to news coming out of Manchester, where the team is staying and practicing, the third round of PCR tests following the team’s arrival in the UK on 9 May has returned all negatives. The players and support staff are in a bubble and having completed their three-day quarantine period, they have been given the ground, the nets and the gym for practices and conditioning. Practices have been taking place for between six to eight hours, inclusive of gym conditioning, every day in temperatures between 14-18 degrees Celsius.

The squad of 24 players will play in two intra-squad practice matches on 16 and 18 June before they take on England in the first two T20Is at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on 23 and 24 June, before moving to the Ageas Bowl in Southampton for the third and final T20I on 26 June.