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“Dick” to save Sri Lanka!

27 May 2021

By Revatha S. Silva

[caption id="attachment_138775" align="alignleft" width="372"] Niroshan Dickwella is to return to ODI cricket today after 2019 for the third and final match against Bangladesh in Dhaka[/caption]

Sri Lanka will include Niroshan Dickwella to strengthen their appalling batting line-up today.

Confirming the inclusion, Grant Flower, Sri Lanka’s Batting Coach, said, “There is good chance that Niroshan Dickwella is playing tomorrow (today). He played very well in the warm-up match and he is well in the nets. Obviously we have got a good keeper in Kusal (Perera) but obviously there is going to be a change tomorrow. He will be the keeper.”

Since his ODI debut in July 2014, the 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has not played ODI cricket since March 2019. Yet he played continued to play T20Is for the country through 2019 until the previous West Indies series in March this year.

Batting second, the Lankans lost the first two ODIs in Bangladesh this week and will be hoping for change of fortunes for gaining at least some confidence before a heavy international white-ball cricket schedule heading towards the T20 World Cup scheduled for October.

Following are excerpts from the media conference Flower had yesterday (27) virtually from Bangladesh:

[caption id="attachment_138776" align="alignleft" width="434"] Sri Lanka Batting Coach Grant Flower is still hopeful Sri Lanka will come up with a better performance[/caption]

Losing the series already after the first two games:

I am obviously disappointed. The main concern is their (Sri Lanka’s) batting against the spin. Not being good enough to rotate the strike. And putting away the bad balls and struggling with some of the seamers as well. It has to be hard work but we have not been good enough and the results are showing.

When I see the guys playing in the nets, they look really good and are playing with freedom. But in the middle, it is different. There is pressure. And they are hitting to a lot to the fielders. And it looks like the guys are freezing. But we worked on a few things and hopefully we’ll see a positive difference tomorrow (today).

Dropping a couple of seniors from the Sri Lanka ODI team:

There is a very big impact of it at this stage. But the youngsters who have been picked by the selectors are good players. But obviously there is a lack of a lot of experience.

And when you look at Mushfiqur’s (Mushfiqur Rahim) and Tamim (Iqbal) and Mehidy (Hasan Miraz) and some of the Bangladesh senior players’ experience, they play a lot of cricket.

Regarding our senior players, being left out is tough for them. But that’s cricket. It evolves. As you grow older, sometimes some of their performances might have gone down a bit.

And the selectors have gone for the young guys. They haven’t played as much as they could have so far. Sometimes it takes a while for the guys to get into the form. Some of them played better in the West Indies. Hopefully, we will see some better performances tomorrow.

Losing continuously:

It’s hard. It’s energy sapping. It’s not lack of hard work. The guys have got a great attitude. And they are really nice people.

But the results aren’t coming through. As batting coach, yes, there is pressure on me. That goes with the job. At the moment they (the players) are under pressure, and I’m under pressure.

It’s not from lack of work. It’s lack of execution of skills under pressure in the middle. Hopefully the guys can free themselves up tomorrow and show others how good actually they can bat.

On the new batting line-up:

I’m not satisfied with the result. On the day, you got to be satisfied with what you are given by the selectors and the Captain and you work with those players and you back those players. It is up to the Coach to show faith in them and you have to give them confidence and hopefully they will give you results back.

Our seniors were happened to be at the top of the order as opposed to the middle. That doesn’t mean that the door is shut for anyone that has been dropped.

If they come back strongly in the domestic (tournaments) or the selectors deem that they need to come back… but at the moment these are the players that they’ve picked. And we got to show confidence in them.

Persistent problem against spin:

They have a problem with playing spin. We played decently well against the spin in the West Indies. But not in this series, we weren’t playing well. For some reason, the guys have struggled in these wickets --that have played quite well-- against two good spinners, Shakib (Al Hasan) and Mehidy (Hasan Miraz).

From people whom I have spoken to, Sri Lanka seem to have had a problem with playing spin before my time, like five years back. It’s not anything new but hopefully we are going to see something better.

But I’m not too sure. It is may be something to do with local cricket. How strong the local spinners. I’m not sure whether the guys are put under a lot of pressure. But at the moment, we’ve been found wanting. But that’s international cricket. It exposes you and you have to find the answers.

Can the dropped seniors come back?

Someone like Angi (Angelo Mathews) could come off and he is a fine player. He still is but his records suggest that just recently in the contractual period, he has done okay but over time the selectors and the Director of Cricket (Tom Moody) have thought it is time to blood some new people.

Whether or not they are to change their minds and ask Angi to come back, I’m not sure. I’m not a selector. My job is to work with the batsmen. Hopefully I will get better results with the guys going forward.

About the next England white-ball series:

There might be a couple of changes in the personnel. I’m not sure. Yes. England brings totally different challenges, and very good bowlers especially in their home conditions.

And Mickey (Arthur) chatted to the guys in the dressing room the other night through our defeat. And he was very open and saying if you guys find it tough against Bangladesh, we’ve now got England coming up with the likes of (Mark) Woods, (Chris) Woakes.

And straight back after that, India are coming out to Sri Lanka. Even though they won’t have their best team, their second team is as good as quite a few international teams.

So the guys have got their work cut out. They know what is ahead of them. That’s the great challenge of playing for your country. And playing against the best in the world, you’ve got to adapt. If you don’t adapt quickly, you are left behind.

When you get dropped, it’s the next guy coming in. You got to be quick on your feet. That’s international sport and that’s what you get paid for.

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