Ashoka
I have been vindicated about my claim that Tharanga has a great deal of support from the media and various websites. This guy Yohan Vass appears to be a diehard supporter of Upul Tharanga. He has so far submitted 16 blogs and out of them, 14 posts have been devoted to promote Tharanga.
I have already proved with evidence that Tharanga has failed to deliver against top quality bowling attacks in the ODI format in my earlier blogs.
Unfair Comparisons
Danushka has played only 36 ODIS and Dimuth has played only 17 ODIs. However, Tharanga has played 235 ODIs. Even Mahela Jayawardena’s batting average after his first 50 odd ODIs was less than 30. Hence, you cannot compare the performances of Dimuth and Danushka with that of Tharanga. Both Dimuth and Danushka have played very few ODI matches and they have not been given the opportunity to prove their worth.
It is said that the capability of a batsmen can be correctly assessed only through test cricket. If that is so, let us examine how Tharanga fared in test cricket. It is nothing but pathetic. Out of 58 innings, he could only muster a very lacklustre, unimpressive, and paltry average of 31.89. Then, let us examine his averages against top-quality teams in test cricket except against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
South Africa – 23.50 from 11 innings
Pakistan – 35.6 from 10 innings
New Zealand – 21 from 4 innings
England – 21 from 8 innings
India – 14.1 from 10 innings
Nevertheless, like in ODI cricket, he had accumulated impressive averages of 61 and 58.13 against weak teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh respectively.
Who is selfish?
Mr. Yohan said Danushka is selfish while Tharanga is such a team man. But facts prove otherwise. Danushka’s strike rate in ODIs is 84.7 whereas Tharanga’s strike rate is 75.93. This selfish tag is suited to players like Tharanga, Chandimal, and Thirimanne who are heavily supported by the media. In fact, Danushka scored 76 runs from 72 balls during that ICC Championship Trophy match against India while chasing 321 runs which we won. So, how could anybody say he is selfish?
Tharanga’s poor technique
Tharanga has a very poor footwork and an awful technique. Even commentators have pointed out that. His poor technique was the reason he could not be successful in test cricket. He cannot bowl also.
The favourites of the Media
Nevertheless, he has so many friends who send articles in favour of him.There are commentators like Sajith Fernando and Anusha Samaranayake who support him through the media. Both of them represent the NCC, which is the club of Upul Tharanga. What is more influential Ranjith Fernando is also from the NCC. Furthermore, he is heavily praised by Rex Clementine who also favours selfish players like Chandimal and Thirimanne. I do not have anything against Tharanga personally. But he is trying to get into this world cup squad by exerting pressure through the media via his buddies. It is quite hard to understand why the media is fascinated about a player in the calibre of Tharanga because he is no Lara, Ponting, Mathews, or Kohli for that matter.
In conclusion, it is suffice to say that he is a highly overrated player. Some say he is one of the best ODI openers we have had. That is extremely untrue. The best ODI openers we have had so far were Sanath, Marvan, and Dilshan.
If තරංග hates anyone at this point in time, යොහාන් has to be at the top of that list for publishing these articles with same statistics over and over again. Because each time he publishes these posts, people point out to the real facts which are not very pleasant. So yohan please do තරංග a favour. Just shut the fuck up for once! He might stand a better chance for worldcup.
Asoka, Kudos to you my good friend. What you have done is most of us in this site wanted to do it at some point but shied away from being targeted by UT supporters. I commend you for having the balls to do it, remember there is going to be an avalanche of personality targeted comments coming at you. As you already know that these UT group has the habit of insulting everyone personally when there is a negative comments about UT. What I can’t understand that these guys seem to think Srilanka can only win when UT is in the team which I take umbrage. Worst of all they are only interested in one player (UT)
but not really concerned about the team we all support and the reason why we all are on this site.
Tiger Sap well said!!
It’s sad to note why people just keep on supporting certain players only when they fail
continuously to perform , look absolutely pathetic on facing international bowlers , unable to build a inings .You just cannot play all the time on past performance only.For us Country and it’s Pride comes first.In the past we have criticised best players when they under perform why it’s a team game if a player due to negligence, cannot consistently try or do his part it effects the team.
There are many players who have maintained their performance continuously or tried to do it honestly . Example Sangakkara, Waas, Murlidaran, Dharmasena, Dilshan, Mahela ,Matthew etc.But correct me if wrong cannot recall during their playing days anyone criticising or accusing above players like these days for a longer period . let’s hope at least in the future they give their comments on fruitfully , honestly for the betterment of this wonderful game called cricket and respect the page viewer’s.
If you look at the performance of Upul Tharanga over the years, including the last 12 months one will realize the actual reason why he is not considered as a good choice for the modern day ODI format. During the period from 2005 to 2014 as an opening batsman he maintained an average of mid 35 and a very low SR of around 75%. This SR might have been acceptable for an opening batsman for matches played prior to 2014. Even during the same periods other opening batsmen like Dilshan & Sanath were maintaining a very high SRs around 85%.
If you look at his records during the last 12 months ii looks so pathetic. In 17 matches, 171 runs, average 15.5, SR 83% without a half century for 11 innings and his Highest Sore was only 36.
That shows currently he is a totally out of form opening batsman in SL. We should be ashamed if we include such an out of form, slow scoring opening batsman to the WC Squad. Tharanga knows his problem is his slow SR. During the recent past he has gained some T20 experience out side SL so he may be trying to apply the same batting techniques in ODI matches to increase his batting SR. His current SR of 83% (during the last 12 months) is no way acceptable for an opening batsman in this years WC. Other countries have developed two opening batsmen having SR s well over 100%. Even Dickwella has a SR of 98%. I am preparing some statistics of around 20 opening batsmen from 9 countries performed during the last 12 months. Tharanga’s position is the last (20th). (I will post them within the next couple of days)