Sri Lankan selectors
But tbh I thought the Tharanga selection to replace Jeevan was motivated by the lack of batsmen in the squad, however now the imbalance has been restored
Haha yeah, the squad is now balanced in the same way as it was when it was first named, despite none of the replacements being like for like!
To be fair I've seen the logic every step of the way.
> The original squad was selected with Dimuth expected to open on the strength of his Test ton in NZ and Jeevan expected to bat 7 on the strength of his awesome First Class performances last season and a couple of decent/promising finishing jobs in the ODIs against England. These ideas were flawed but both were selected primarily as batsmen, expected in be in the first choice XI.
> After the series against New Zealand it became pretty obvious that Dimuth opening in ODIs wasn't going to work and Jeevan (nor Perera) was good enough with the bat in these conditions to bat seven. This fundamentally changed the balance of the squad as Dimuth was now a spare part and Jeevan had transformed from a batting allrounder to a partnership breaker who could bat a bit. The squad was now lacked batting depth, particularly lower middle order batting depth with Thirimanne having to open, Chandimal failing in that spot again and Jeevan/Thisara having nosebleeds at 7.
> When a bowling allrounder (Jeevan) was injured, the selectors took the opportunity to replace him with a batsman and address that balance issue.
> When Karunaratne was injured, they brought in a spin bowling allrounder. This seems counter-intuitive at first, but Dimuth's nothingness as a squad member was part of what caused the extra batting depth to be required in the first place, and more importantly they're now also carrying Herath injured,
hoping he'll recover. Prasanna could cover Herath in the short term to ensure two spinners were still an option, and then cover Mendis's weird norounder role in the long term once Herath recovered if they wanted to go that way. If they really need the extra batsman afterall then Herath can be withdrawn later -- because he's injured.
So it's been a journey, but I get all the decisions. The only decisions I really disagreed with with the ones made in the initial squad, which are really what have caused all this.
