Dhananjaya and Sri Lanka keep WTC Finals hopes alive after a convincing win at Galle.
Dhananjaya and Sri Lanka might have just kept the hopes of an unlikely WTC Finals spot alive.
Sri Lanka started their World Test Champion cycle in July of last year. And things could not have started out more disappointingly. They lost by four wickets in Galle after falling victim to a double-hundred against Saud Shakeel. The SSC was the following match, and they lost easily twice. In one of those innings they had to deal with a very raging reverse-swing spell from Naseem Shah.
After eight matches played including a 63-run victory over New Zealand in Galle, fourteen months later, they sit third in the WTC table. Their win percentage during this cycle is 50%.
That Pakistan series had been played under Karunaratne, who was desperate to give up the captaincy. Dhananjaya de Silva, however, appears to have brought fresh energy to the role.
Their two victories in Bangladesh in 2024 are quite an accomplishment these days. The Oval produced their greatest Test victory in years. And have successfully returned to their own territory. This cycle consists of five tests. There will be two Tests in South Africa at the end of November and beginning of December. As well as two home Tests against Australia the following year. The first one is scheduled to begin on Thursday in Galle.
Even if all of these tasks are challenging, there is now hope that they are not unwinnable games. This is primarily due to Sri Lanka’s depth and adaptability as bowlers nowadays.
Less than three weeks ago, at The Oval, a quartet of fast bowlers produced a crushing victory in seaming conditions. Their lead spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, who was not required at The Oval, took nine wickets and produced another match-winning second-innings stint on a surface that was abnormally dry even by Galle’s norms.
De Silva personally grabbed the ball and bagged three wickets during the match, including opening the bowling on day five, when New Zealand could have still managed to sneak through to win when their second spinner Ramesh Mendis struggled to maintain control in Galle.
As captain, de Silva has batted above average thus far and has now used the ball to significantly contribute to a win. He’s never really looked to be phased by anything on the cricket pitch, and leadership might be no different.
This cycle of the Test Championship has been simpler for Sri Lanka because they haven’t had to play away from home against Australia or India, the two most difficult cricket tours. Even so, after being a modest Test squad for nearly ten years they now have the opportunity to build on consecutive successes in radically different circumstances.
And the main people who have got them this far are their bowlers.