Sri Lanka T20I skipper Wanindu Hasaranga says that his team is one of top bowling sides in the world. His comments came on the eve of the first T20I of the three-match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Both the sides will be playing six T20Is each before the T20 World Cup in June later this year and the current series will comprise three of their six matches. The T20 series kicks off on Saturday (Feb 17).

“If you look at world cricket, we’re one of the best teams in terms of bowling outfits. If you look at the rankings, myself and Maheesh [Theekshana] are in the top 10. Dushmantha Chameera was unlucky with his injury, otherwise he’d also be here. But in his place we have Binura [Fernando] who has come in, and there’s also Matheesha [Pathirana] and Nuwan Thushara. We know how good those two are. Dilshan Madushanka is also there.

“In terms of bowlers we have quite a few options, so when we come to playing on good tracks - especially T20s - we need to see exactly how to bowl. We’ve bowled on good wickets before, so I think in T20s it’s from the bowlers that you’re going to win matches.

“The types of wickets we’re going to play on at the World Cup, there’s a good chance we’ll play on similar wickets during these next six games. With that we’ll be aiming to figure out how we can win a game with our combination of bowlers,” said Hasaranga. 

The two sides also played a three-match ODI series which Sri Lanka won 3-0 prior to the T20I series. Sri Lanka are going through the transition period for a long time now but have started coming together.

They had reached the Asia Cup 2023 final and played some good cricket in patches at the ODI World Cup 2023 in recent times. The T20 format is, however, the one which suits their strength the most.

Source: WION
--Agencies