Dubai. All eyes will be on Lasith Malinga who returns to the Sri Lanka team after playing his last match for them way back in November 2015 following an injury and will be the pacer to watch out for in the oncoming Champions Trophy. Malinga was also seen bowling at his best in the just concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) and played a vital role in Mumbai Indians’ title triumph.
Sri Lanka have a formidable pace attack with Malinga in the lead and followed by Nuwan Kulasekara, Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal, as well as the all-rounder Thisara Perera.
In fact, Sri Lanka’s spin attack too looks excellent with Seekkuge Prasanna and Lakshan Sandakan.
Sri Lankan team captain Angelo Mathews is confident that Malinga will deliver. “Malinga is very keen and is fully fit. Though he hasn’t played 50-over games in the recent past, he’s played a lot of games in the IPL.”
Malinga has been training hard bowling long spells at the nets. “Malinga has trained a lot and hence gained a lot of confidence. He is our match winner and he has done it many times over the years. He can win any game single-handedly. We are all excited to have him back.”
Sri Lanka are hoping for their second title success in this tournament. They had shared the trophy with India in 2002 after a rain-affected final.
Sri Lanka are pooled with India, South Africa and Pakistan. The warm up matches haven’t been encouraging for the team as they lost one of its two games against Scotland.
However, to get into the knock out, Sri Lanka will have to fight it out very hard.
They are yet to prove its might after the retirement of their star players Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Hence their batting line up isn’t very experienced.
“We are a pretty young, inexperienced team. We’ve got the talent. and skill in the team. All that we need to do is to go out and play well on the field,” said Mathews, who also revealed that some of his players have played in England.
Upul Tharanga could be the mainstay in their batting, while Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella should rise to the challenge along with all-rounders Mathews and Thisara. Incidentally, 23-year-old Dickwella was the top run-getter for Sri Lanka in the ODI series in South Africa.
Mathews is not worried about the loss to Scotland in the warm up and has justified his team’s defeat. “It was a practice game and we rested a few players. I wanted our batters to bat on those conditions when the wicket is fresh and the result didn’t really matter for us. Though we thrashed them in the second game even that result didn’t really matter to us,” said Mathews.
Mathews believe that everyone has got a chance to win in the Champions Trophy. “No one can write any team off this tournament. And I’m sure it will be very exciting contests.”
Incidentally, Sri Lanka have featured in every edition of the ICC Champions Trophy. After being the joint winner with India in the 2002, They have reached the semi-finals on two occasions — during the inaugural edition in 1998 and even in 2013.
