Asalanka on the conditions he expects at Khettarama as he and his side expects seam and batter-friendly pitch.
Sri Lanka’s ODI captain Asalanka expects seam and batter-friendly pitch at Khettarama.
Sri Lanka is eager to make progress after falling behind in ODI cricket and not even making it to the Champions Trophy earlier this year. Matching home pitches more closely to the behaviour of pitches found worldwide is one way the present leadership believes they may close that gap.
For example, the pitch at Khettarama has long been quite spin-friendly. However, Asalanka, the ODI skipper, hinted that this Khettarama pitch might be different before the game. In their last series, Sri Lanka defeated semi-finalists Australia for the Champions Trophy 2-0.
“There’s definitely a difference in this surface,” he said “Even if it’s helfpul to spinners, even in the previous series against Australia, we saw that it would seam, and the fast bowlers got wickets. Asitha Fernando got five in two matches. I think this pitch will be a bit more batting friendly than usual”
The seam-bowling stock in Sri Lanka is exceptionally full. They had players like Asitha, Dilshan Madushanka, and Eshan Malinga in the team, although Asalanka indicated they will try seam-bowling all-rounder Milan Rathnayake in this series.
Additionally, this is the first game Sri Lanka has played under the new ODI rules, which require the fielding team to select one of the two balls used up until the 34th over to be utilised for the final 16. This is supposedly an attempt to reinstate reverse swing in the ODI format, which might work for players like Asitha, who has a history of doing it in Test cricket.
“We’re also new to that rule, so we are still formulating our plans,” Asalanka said about the new playing condition. “It must be to favour fast bowlers that they brought this new rule to use one ball after 34 overs. It’s possible that we will have to treat two balls in two different ways before we decide which one we will use after the 34th. We’re hoping to land on the right plan from the first match.”