Cricket has come alive in every sense with teams having re-strategized their ‘white-ball’ approach in recent times. The ICC Champions Trophy is set to explode with all 8 teams scoring heavily in the warm-up games giving fans a glimpse of things to come.
The Sri Lankan team, competing in group B, is not short of talent but most predictions are for their group-stage exit in England and Wales considering recent performances. Despite this, the island nation has thus far been able to keep up the pace with the rest, at least with the bat, notching up 300+ scores in their warm-up games.

Sri Lanka are known to be the ‘Perennial Bridesmaids’ of ICC events as they enjoyed near-perfect campaigns in 2007, 2011 (World Cup), 2009 and again in 2012 (World T20) before finally taking home a trophy in 2014, the World T20 beating India in Bangladesh.
The past is, however, past! Since the high-profile retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and MahelaJayawardene, who have played 44 Champions Trophy matches between them, Sri Lanka Cricket has been on a downward spiral, languishing in the bottom half of the rankings in all three formats.


History at Champions Trophy

Sri Lanka tasted championship glory once in their own backyard in 2002 when they shared the trophy with India after rain played spoilsport in both the finals. The South Asian Islanders suffered group-stage exits in 2004, 2006 and 2009 and in the last edition they managed to reach the semi-finals after defeating Australia and hosts England in the group stage. They were then beaten by the eventual winners India.

Bowling volatilities and combinations

Sri Lanka’s bowling average as a team in the warm-ups was 45.4 as they leaked 1135 runs and took only 25 wickets in four games against Scotland, Australia and New Zealand. The performances in the warm-ups will count for nothing as Sri Lanka tried many combinations throughout the last two weeks leading up to the tournament in order to give game time to everyone in the squad.
The return of LasithMalinga, who last played an ODI for Sri Lanka back in November 2015, will certainly boost the mediocre Lankan bowling attack. Malinga no doubt has gone down in pace but will still use all his experience in crunch games to deliver for the islanders. He bowled 8 good overs against the Aussies, took a wicket for 32 runs and proved his fitness. Making his fourth Champions Trophy appearance, Malinga will be determined to join his partner-in-crime, NuwanKulasekara to deliver up front and in the death with the ball.

Since the ICC World Cup in 2015, Sri Lanka has a bowling average 46.65 and an economy rate of 6.08 – the worst out of the 8 participating nations. It will be very interesting to see how either SurangaLakmal, who is Sri Lanka’s highest ODI wicket taker since 2015 with 21 wickets, or NuwanPradeep, who bowled reasonably well against Australia, will fit into the team as the third seamer to control the run flow in the middle overs with the part-time assistance from Angelo Mathews and AselaGunarathne.

Sri Lanka, a team which used to choke its opponents in the middle overs through their spinners, will now have to rely on left-arm chinamanLakshan Sandakan, who has played only 6 ODIs, to pick up the wickets. He tends to deliver the odd loose ball and can be expensive but Sri Lanka will need that ‘X’ factor on the batting friendly English surfaces.

Sri Lanka will have to think long and hard if they are to include two spinners in Sandakan and Seekkuge in the playing XI, especially in the cold, windy conditions but they might spring a surprise against the Proteas.


Batting strengths and weaknesses

Sri Lanka has been renowned to be inconsistent with the bat in the past which puts a lot of pressure on the experienced players in Angelo Mathews, UpulTharanga and Dinesh Chandimal to fire throughout the tournament along with the youngsters, NiroshanDickwella and KusalMendis who’ll be playing their first ICC tournament.

The top order looks settled with Tharanga to open the batting with fearless Dickwella followed by free-flowing Mendis, steady Chandimal and captain marvel, Mathews. The make or break point in the batting line up will be how sensible AselaGunarathne and hard-hitting ChamaraKapugedara contribute to Sri Lanka’s success.

Both Gunarathne and Kapugedara are mature in age and can win games on their own, particularly Gunaratne, who displayed his hitting prowess against Australia in the 3-match T20I series Down Under. SeekkugePrasanna and ThisaraPerera can also play a crucial part in the slog overs with the bat if they make the final XI.

Since the 1st of April in 2015, Sri Lanka has a dot-ball percentage of 49.97% and scoring rate of 5.06 from the 11th over to 40th over, the lowest among the eight-participating nations in ODI cricket and will surely look to improve on those stats with a more compact approach in the coming games.

They eclipsed the 300 mark in both warm-up games with most of their batsmen getting runs behind their name but they will need to punch above their weight against the firing South African bowling attack, pace-dominated Indian lineup and the inconsistent Pakistanis, who have a threatening fast-bowling battery of their own.

Fielding woes

Once considered one of the top-notch fielding sides in the world, Sri Lanka have been heavily criticized in recent times for their substandard fielding performances. Both head coach, Graham Ford and team manager, AsankaGurusinha have promised a better fielding display in England & Wales as no matter what you do with the bat and ball, it will be the fielding which will win you the crunch games.

Final words

There are few expectations weighing down this Sri Lanka team even though in mind, heart and soul, the cricket-crazy Lankan fans will still want the Lions to do well. The ‘underdogs’ tag will give them a sense of freedom and the opponents should not forget how competitive Sri Lanka can get in ICC events.

If Sri Lanka can topple one of the pre-tournament favourites, South Africa and India, they will certainly back themselves to beat Pakistan and qualify for the semi-finals but for all of that, each and every department should sync together and put their ‘A’ game out.