Kaveen Wijerathna
Sri Lankan Squad for the Asia cup is set to be named on upcoming days . Sri lanka will play Bangladesh and Afghanistan in group stages
Lets look who will be there for the Mega Event
Openers
Pathum Nissanka has been highly sucessful as the t20 opener since his inclusion to the side in World Cup and did well in Australia and India .So Pathum Nissanka will be the 1st Choice Opener
Then the question will be who is his partner ?
Danushka Gunathilaka was the opening partner for Nissanka in Australia Series but couldnt convert the starts into a big one and struggled in Australia and India One advantage maintaining Nissanka-Gunathilaka combo will be the left-right opening partnership
Kusal Mendis ,who is the 1st choice wicket keeper has done really well opening the batting although he struggled in middle order .My prediction is that Selectors will stick to Gunathilaka-Nissanka opening partnership atleast for the start of tournament and Mendis will have to bat at 4
Middle Order
Charith will bat at No 3 and Kusal Mendis will bat at 4 while Bhanuka will slot at 5
Kusal Mendis will need to erase his previous mistakes batting at middle to uplift the hopes of sri lankan about going forward in the tournament
Sri Lankan middle order hasnt fired in matches played this year and was bailed out by Dasun Shanaka 3-4 times
Bhanuka Rajapaksha also will have to make his Bat Talk as the left hander is having a poor run of form begining from the middle phase of ipl
All Rounders
Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanakais all set to bat at 6 in Asia Cup .His contribuitions at the final phase of the game will be vital
Chamika Karunarathna will bat at 7 .Batted well in last t20 vs Australia but has struggled in previous tours with bat in hand .So he will need to chnage his batting form quickly .Spin bowling Sensation Wanidu will bat at 8 to add late flourish to the inning .He also can make a suprise promotion to the top order depending on situations as he play spin well
Spinners
Wanidu and Maheesh will be the 2 first st choice spin Options for Sri Lanka
I think Jeffrey Vnadersay will be the 3rd spin option consiering his good perfomances in white ball cricket in recent months
Fast Bowlers
Dushmantha Chameera will be the leader of pace attack
Sri Lanka will need another fast bowling options apart from Chameera and Chamika
The options are ,
Kumara ,Pathirana,Binura ,Asitha and Dilshan Madushanka who had a pretty impressive opening spell where he troubled national players like Nissanka ,Chandimal and Shanaka
I would be tempted to pick Kumara , Pathirana for his death bowling skills and Dilshan Madushanka for his new ball skills ahead of Binura .It would be a tough choice between Binura and Madhushanka
Backup Wicket keeper
Sri Lanka will need a backup for Kusal Mendis in case of an injury
so the viable options are Chandimal, Dickwella ,Sadeera and Minod
Out of these options , i feel that Chandimal is the better option
Chandimal has a poor t20 record with a poor strike rate of 104 ,but the thing is other candidates havent done any favour for them due to their poor form and Chandimal has been in prolific form in recent tours
People have the question that how Chandimal and Dickwella get near to sri lankan white ball squads again and again
The simple answer is no one in domestic level is pushing theses guys with perfomances
Domestic keepers like Sadeera ,Minod ,Udara hasnt done well enough in white ball cricket
A year ago , Sandakan and Akila were main spin options for Sri Lanka in white ball cricket
But due to inconsistent performances and the Emergence of Maheesh ,Ramesh and Vandersay ,they have been left out of national squads
Chandimal will sneak into the Asia Cup Squad ,but time is clearly running out for him to make a mark in white ball cricket
MY Squad for Asia Cup
Dasun Shanaka (C)
Charith Asalanka (VC)
Danushka Gunathilaka
Pathum Nissanka
Kusal Mendis (WK)
Dinesh Chandimal(WK)
Bhanuka Rajapaksha
Chamika Karunarathna
Wanindu Hsaranga
Maheesh Theekshana
Jeffrey Vandersay
Dushmantha Chameera
Lahiru Kumara
Matheesha Pathirana
Dilshan Madushanka
3 Extra Players
Kamindu Mendis
Praveen Jayawickrama
Niroshan Dickwella (Wk)