Sri Lanka Thread
 

Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Isuru Udana, Farveez Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak, Indika de Saram

As expected no Vaasy and only one Twenty20 specialist in Indika de Saram. Though he replaces Kapu. Udana, the new Vaas, to debut as well.

Happy with the bowling attack and quite a few all rounders that can hit the ball a fair bit. Top order quite strong. Middle order is the weak link. Hopefully Mathews gets a decent run. But Muburak, Silva and De Saram have been in brillant Twenty20 form and he form has been poor in that form.

Jayasuriya
Dilshan
Sangakkara (wk)
Silva
de Saram
Mubarak
Maharoof/Mathews
Kulasekara
Mendis
Muralitharan
Malinga

Top 3 and bottom 4 select themselves.

Jayawardene doesn't select himself? Silva scores as slow outside domestic cricket.

He might not be the greatest Twenty20 batsmen, but there not many other options.

I was debating over who to put there, Silva or Jayawardene and went with Silva. Flip a coin though. But with Sanga's Silva and Mahela not being the fastest strikers you can't really put them all in the team IMO.

Silva long way behind Jayawardene for mine. Scores as slow, but would also average 10 less, or 5 in Twenty20.

Though all three (Sangakkara, Silva and Jayawardene) all have s/r of 130 odd at domestic/IPL level. It not that bad, when you have Dilshan and Jayasuriya at the top and Maharoof and Thurshara in the lower order. Add in de Saram at 150 s/r, decent balance for mine.

Jayawardene is a must at number four for mine. He may need to come in and play a controlled innings if the top order falls over. And if he comes in with any of the top 3, him scoring at a run a ball would be perfectly acceptable as the others score much quicker.

I thought he batted well in the IPL the other night.

happy with the squad, De sarem was the star of the inter provincial 20/20, Muba batted well also.

I am hopeful players play to form should make semis.I am also hopeful de sarem gets to play all the games he is coming good at a late age.

Sangakkara and Jayawardene aren't exactly the fastest of strikers, probably good to go at anywhere between 90-120 every game though.