Sri Lanka have two of the best T20 tweakers round. The guileful leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga and the crafty mystery-spinner Maheesh Theekshana. Together, they might unleash most tips within the spin diction, from customary leg-breaks to reverse carrom-balls, and don’t essentially require help from the pitch. There is the under-rated part-time off-spin of Dhananjaya de Silva as nicely.
But as sorted as Sri Lanka’s spin division is, there’s uncertainty round their tempo bowling agency. The Asia Cup noticed a few children rising from obscurity, like left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka and Pramod Madushan. But they’ve a collective expertise of eight T20Is. Their two most skilled bowlers, Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara, although included within the squad, are battling accidents and are unsure.
Chameera has endured a string of accidents, one to the calf being the most recent. So has Kumara, who has been recouping from a recurring hamstring damage. Even in the event that they regain health in time, they’d be coming in with little match observe — Kumara final featured in a world recreation in March, whereas Chameera, regardless of the workforce administration’s finest measures to not over-burden him, has damaged down continuously and final performed a aggressive recreation in June. Both are usually not anticipated to show up for the qualifying video games.
That would depart a crushing burden on Madushanka and Madushan. Madushanka, one of many architects of the Asia Cup triumph, has the bearings to succeed — he bowls at respectable tempo (135-142 kph), will get late inward motion that troubled each Babar Azam and Virat Kohli, and is disciplined. But his demise bowling continues to be a piece in progress and he tends to bowl too many size balls.
Like Madushanka, Madushan too likes to hit the good-to-full-length band, and tends to err on the shorter aspect when he strives to bowl back-of-length. His lack of specific tempo means the quick ball turns into fodder for batsmen. Sri Lanka thus lack a pound-the-deck bowler who will be helpful in Australian circumstances, other than Kumara. And none other than Kumara are expert death-bowlers.
Apart from this quartet — of which two are unsure and two callow — Sri Lanka have little depth within the tempo bowling division. Medium-pacer Chamika Karunaratne tends to be scattergun and is normally confined to part-time duties. Dasun Shanaka has develop into a reluctant bowler after changing into captain. There is little promise on the standby bench both. The solely fast-bowling different is Binura Fernando, who leaks practically eight-and-a-half runs an over. So but once more, Sri Lanka are left over-relying on their multi-skilled spinners.
