Kalof
Last match against New Zealand was disasterous. It broke the hopes of fans back at home. I am going talk about kusal mendis today.
Problem with him is that he was highly praised in the early stage of his carrier. He scored in good manner during first few matches. Specially in test cricket ,he scored valuable hundreds back home. Why he is failing continously in ODI’s?
I think limited overs cricket is very dificult than test cricket. You can’t paitiently playing for draw in ODI. It is a do or die game. Kusal mendis bat at number 3 or 4 which is very crutial spot in a batting line up. I think he is the reason for downfall of sri lankan limited overs cricket. He is not matured enough to handle such amount of presure.
He plays nice shots,pull or flick or cover drives or sweep for spinners. But getting out most of the time with crazy manner. Yesterday he gave a slip catch to out swing fast delivery. His technique is very bad. Those things are instructed during under 13 level. You can not play that kind of a shot specially during initial stages of your inning.
Look at other teams. They have virath kholi, root,williamson, du plesis,babar azam,smith at number 3 or 4 . Kusal mendis is not ready for number 4 or 3 position yet. He will score randomly sometimes but not consistent.
Solution should be not to drop him. He has the potential of being a better batter in future for sri lanka. But for the current world cup, he is not ready. He can not handle pressure. He plays well when there is no pressure. His mind is not able withstand the stress. He has skills. His mental strength is very low. Confidence is 30%.
He should bat after mathews. May be number 6 is ideal for him for this world cup. Few things i must highlight at the moment.
Weak points
1) karunrathne getting out playing hook shot to square leg
2) Thisara playing ondrive to long on or mid wicket
3)kusal pereras aggressive batting style at the top
4) Dimuth inability to take singles, he tried to score towards third man area to take a single but not fails most of the time
5) Thirimanne got out yesterday trying to play a straight delivery to leg side
6) Now dimuth is playing anchor role. But he should score run a ball inning by tacking singles,otherwise it will put extra pressure on other players
Hope these errors will be learnt and they will not trap into such deliveries again. We cant blame the whole batting line up for a such low scoring game. First 4 batters are the responsible for this match.
It was said that if 3 wickets lost during first ten overs match is going to loose 75% of the time. So our top order should not apply pressure on low order.
Also look at the picture. That was the delivery that thirimanne gave his wicket. It seams like leg side delivery. But it was pitch in slightly middle. But his foot is crossed towards offside. So he is going to play that delivery assuming it is pitched in leg side. So he trapped LBW.
Hope he make adjustmen next time.
“Kusal Mendis is the reason for the downfall of SL cricket” – seriously? So forget the mis-admin, forget the stealing, forget the first class cricket being dominated by sub par clubs, forget the politics but lets blame a young man who is probably the best talent we have come up with in recent times.
I agree that the importance of the #4 spot but it’s not like we haven’t tried options since Mahela left and keep trying options but point is there is no one and this is the best of the worst. Mathews should take the bull by the horns and show some guts and bat up the order and steady the ship but he doesn’t like batting up the order so it’s left to one of the youngsters. Neither has been on the park consistently enough to play any ‘role’ for the team. The way I see it, Mendis is a reasonable prospect for the future and the best way to groom him is to give him the spot now. Part of that bargain is he may fail but it’s not like we have a Mehela hiding somewhere in the clubs.
This is a constructive criticism, we dont want a star player like tendulkar. We want a team with 11 players to win for us. Im not focus on domestic cricket. This is international cricket.
I am talking about the 15 players in the squad.
We have to win from these 15 players.
Out of these players we have to select some one who can handle the pressure at number 4.
Number 4 has to play an important role.
When batsmen doesnt have form, v must change him.
No point of repeating the same mistake. Dont under estimate the talent or skill of the squad. The mental strength or attitude is the problem.
No point of criticising domestic structure now.
I suggest we got to change our approach. We need to try and build the pressure on the opposit. That’s what Bangladesh did to SA.
If we play defensive cricket in this high scoring era anyway we are going to loose. Therefore Kusal P needs to open with Dimuth. What will happen if it becomes one of his glorious days. If we loose an early wicket bring in Thirimanne if not Kusal M can continue the good work done by openers.
Also a word about Matthews he faced 9 balls without scoring and got out for a duck. Why can’t he start with singles without waiting for loose balls to score boundaries. He was doing the same thing before he got dropped. After his comeback he was getting his singles and moving the score until he got a good eye on the ball to play his shots. Now again he has gone back to getting bogged down and ultimately loosing his wicket after wasting good number of balls. Why don’t anybody from the management tell him that he is more valuable than that. Just take singles and keep the scoreboard moving until you get eye/loose balls so that no pressure will buildup on Matthews or the team.
mathews is the main match winner in the team,he can waste any number of balls, so dont criticise about his 9 balls, thats the way he operates. We were all out for 30 overs,we had so many overs left, dont b upset about those 9 balls,
Match was allready lost when he came to crease, he is the one who change the match.
@kalof are you dumb it ain’t one person’s fault about this downfall, its the whole team faults. After the 2016 world cup, Sri lanka had called up over 60 batsmens and most failed. One batsmen that didn’t fail is Kusal Mendis. Look at Asela Guneratne, had an amazing 2017 and now he’s shit. Another example look at Chandimal, Thirrimane and Mathews, they were suppose to be the senior players and Chandimal became a shit batsmen and thirrimane hasn’t played ODI’S since Chandika became coach and Mathews has his injuries issues and the politices issues. Dimuth is the best player and should of kept on playing ODI’S after 2015 world cup, but our stupid selectors didnt want to do it. The Sri lankan selectors are the main problem, need to get rid of them. To summarize this, you’re stupid like the Sri lankan Selectors.
Its too late now but I think the selectors missed a trick by not brining along oshada for no3 spot. Kusal P should open, thirimanne should be booted out. From the time he appeared on the scenes he keeps getting lbw trying to play legside or gets caught in slips or gully. Even when he lasts he cannot up the scoring rate for you so no point in selecting. Another disasterous choice is jeevan mendis, what is he going to give you? Can some one tell me when he last won a game for us? He should be replaced by another guine batsman my choice would have been dickwella. Another trick they missed in not bringing ina gunuine pacer like Lahiru kumara, these are English conditions every team has someone how can bounce batman push them on the backfoot but we don’t.