Shalitha Gunawardhana
Mathews seems to have loss of his ability to rotate the strike ,so after loosing early wickets it adds unwanted pressure on coming batting lineup .And the things is thisara perera has not proven to be effective at all and kusal mendis is technically sound Batsman who struggle to get his consistency because of poor mentality (which is needed to be rectified).we are at the move moments running out of all rounders but shehan Jayasuriya has recently shown his abilities and dasun shanaka also will be effective in that aspect as well. Wanidu Hasaranga will be a good prospects if he is given enough chances(can be uesd as leggei in the team also).and recently most of team depend on fast bowlers which we are lacking after lasith malinga we dont have good fast bowler our bowler are lack of consistency and and common sense which Malinga has but other don’t.
My squad
1)kusal janith (wk)
2)Dimuth karunarathna
3)Avishka fernando
4)kusal mendis/Hasitha boyagoda
5)shehan Jayasuriya(can bowl also)
6)Dinesh Chandimal/Sangeth cooray
7)dasun shanaka (big hitter is a need in a team)
8)Wanidu Hasranaga
9)Lasith ambuldeniya
10)Dilshan madushanka
11)lahiru kumara / kasun rajitha
Dilshan Madushanka?? who is he… And you missed Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Madushanka, Isuru Udana, Kamindu Mendis….
1.D.Karunaratne(C)
2.K.Perera(wk)
3.A.Fernando
4.O.Fernando
5.D.De Silva
6.S.Jayasuriya
7.D.Shanaka
8.W.Hasaranga
9.I.Udana
10.L.Kumara
11.N.Pradeep
12.N.Dickwella
13.A.Dananjaya
14.D.Chameera
15.K.Rajitha
16.D.Gunathilaka
17.(1 quality batsman with potential from the current A team and Emerging Team )
18.L.Ambuldeniya
19.J.Vandersay
20.V.Fernando
Cant have mathews playing the way he does atm .Hes okay on slow and turning wickets but hes 31 now and I dont see him playing another world cup at 35 , so he needs to be dropped right after the world cup together with Jeevan mendis .Also the attitude mathews brings to the team with his negative minded thinking and batting lets down the whole team as well as messes with the entire teams mentality .However we shouldnt turn back to tried and tested failures like chandi and thiri either .Lakmal should be kept for tests only since hes an exceptional test bowler and isnt suited to this format .Mendis has been given enough chances to prove himself and has failed miserably.And his sensitive mindset is absolutely horrible to cope with and is poison to the entire team . However he should be persisted with in the test team .He just cant handle pressure in the ODI format .When he scores a match winning knock like once in a blue moon , hell grab the mic from the commentator and give a damn victory speech adressed to all the people who criticised him .Such immaturity shouldnt be tolerated in the national side .
Malinga and kule should be given a farewell match at the very least at home .They brought the t20 world cup home for us , so they deserve a mahela-sanga like send off .Two greats of the game for us from 2007-2015 era , in tandem they made our bowling attack one of the strongest going around .Kule was ICC no.1 bowler for a very long time too , and who can forget those great inswingers with the new ball to beat the best of defences .
So right after the world cup we need to make plans for the 2023 world cup right away , it will be in India, so those conditions should favour us more and we can compete well .The plan should be to practice playing on Flat wickets with a bit of spin at home .If they are going to bring in a foreign coach , DO IT AS SOON AS THIS WC ENDS .It would be another disaster otherwise .And the same slection panel as well .So whoever the selectors and coaches are , they need to be confirmed right after the WC ( whether its the current ones or new ones) and persisted with no matter how bad the results get for 4 years till the end of the next world cup .And the same goes for the squad .Have some good minds gets together and make a pool of 20 players with potential at max and persist with them till the end of the next world cup .They should make sure players wont be worried at all about being dropped from the team and should just go out and express themselves ( which hasnt happened with mathews , mendis , thisara and Udana in the batting front).On the fast bowling fromt we need to just have two bowlers with good variations as well as 3 or 4 140kmph+ bowlers ( pradeep , kumara , Chameera , Rajitha).
Enough of Thisara Perera .That drama with the wives and his absolutely horrendous display at the WC and absolutely senseless shot selection should be enough for the selectors to give him the sack .Hes been given plenty of opportunities and hasnt answered except for the 1 or 2 good batting performances but we cant tolerate such inconsistency anymore .