Kavinda Kosgoda
Our WC squad needs Test Class inteligent batters the likes of MendisD, Aravinda, Attapattu, Samaraweera, that has had total control over their batting and skills to survive 50 overs.
Even in T20’s the batter should possess intelligence & skills to assess the ways to curb his stroke-play and act according to the situation as we observed how Warner & KLRahul batted in the Yesterday’s [ 08 Apr 2019 ] IPL match , therefore selectors have no other option rather than picking the best proven and experienced talent, we have at present.
In picking players selectors have to consider entire career of those players, not just one chancy performance of the previous day’s match and the number of chances he offers to score a 50 has to be taken seriously into account as well. OshadaF was picked for being the highest run-getter in one season only, but they don’t apply the same rule for MalindaP the most successful Wkt-taking bowler in the Country, showing his class with having full control over his bowling, since 2007. It appears that he is being deliberately ignored.
Likewise they have ignored many a highly talented schoolboy Cricketer of last 10 years who were STARS of YWCs to field henchmen. Some henchmen being continously picked in regarding precarious 1st Class & Tests’ Averages. [ School, 1st Class career and Quality wise ] PathumN is far ahead than many and his consistency record is much more better and easily can be classed with Chandimal,Mathews,RoshenS, AselaG, KusalM, KusalP, SadeeraS, CharithAsalanka, AshenBhandara,…..,they all have long history as consistent bats.
For A long 50-Over tournament like the WC a team needs at least 5Test-class Batters such as Koli, Root, Williamson who can maintain a success rate of 4 out of 5 Innings to win a tournament. There’s no way a team could win a tournament with too many blind hitters that doesn’t have necessary skills to play the ball intentionally all along the ground when required, Good e.g. for this is the batting of Sana & Kalu in ‘96 WC.
Most other Established Test Nations teams are selected by players that has history of proven consistency as batters. : We also badly need 5Wkt taking bowlers & 6 complete proven batters such as: Chandimal, Mathews, RoshenS, AselaG. that can win matches single-handedly, stats from their school-days speaks volumes of their ability.
My advice to selectors is not to go for half-players, those that has no record to prove their consistency. Consistency of players is the main key to win a tournament. It was solid risk-free batting of Aravinda, Mahanama, Hashan & Dharmasena [ it was these 4 that saved us at difficult times ] and the bowlers that had the perfect control over their trade only won the ’96 WC for us. Main reason why we have lost 50-over T’ments, in recent times is, the wholesale changes that has been done to the test Team. Basically a 50-over Team should be the same for Tests, with one or two changes, but selectors have always implied to adopt T20 style of play in 50-over matches as well, as a result our proven players such as Mathews, Chandimal, Dickwella, MendisKu ,SadeeraS,..were always in a dilemma whether to play their normal game or to play, the way the selectors want, which has caused them to be very in consistent in recent times.
As for bowlers they have found it was difficult to maintain their line & length and to enhance their playing-confidence due to lack of competitive tournaments as we have had in the past [ 10 years ago ]. At present our standards have even detoriorated below that of Nepal, though our School Cricket is still one of the best if not the best at Junior levels. Undisputed Champs of U-15 &U17 levels.