Maybe I'm a little harsh but I have little faith in our batting line up. Sanga and Mahela are great but our batting line-up relies far too heavily on them. If either of the fail, the odds on us scoring less than 250 in an innings are so good you'd put your house up.
- 2nd Test vs West Indies 2008, happened twice thanks to a good partnership between Dilshan and Silva in the first innings, then a superb rearguard from Samaraweera (with help from Vaas).
- Vandort's 82 at Brisbane, admittedly with some supprt from Jayawardene.
- Chamara Silva's debut century against New Zealand.
- Handy knocks from Kapugedara, P. Jayawardene and the bowlers
Excluding Bangladesh, I've found twenty examples in the past two years where Sri Lanka have scored 250+, and four of those (the ones listed) have been without their two premier batsmen contributing. Somewhat difficult criteria though, considering over the past two years Sangakarra and Jayawardene have both been averaging over 80. With form like that, if they fail, then most of the batting is likely to falter.
I like both Vandort and Warnapura.
As do I, but it is early days for that partnership and Tharanga Paranavitana has performed well domestically and could challenge for an opening birth if he gets an opportunity with Sri Lanka A.
I don't rate Samaraweera - he's a joke outside the subcontinent.
That he is, but it would be very harsh to replace him when he topped the averages for Sri Lanka's last two series and is a cut above other domestic batsmen in the country. For the moment he deserves his place in the side, but there is pressure on him to perform away from home like he did in the West Indies, or in 2005 tour to New Zealand.
Silva showed promise early on, but has been a total disappointment since the WC.
More than anything I'd say his treatment by selectors since the World Cup has been disappionting, and he can feel quite hard done by. The Sri Lankas were under-done before the Australian series and although he scored a pair of 40's and looked good in Brisbane Silva wasn't able to score many and couldn't convert his starts at home against England. He went to domestic cricket and scored 50, 7, 25 and 49 and also a half-century against the Guyana President's XI, but was overlooked for the 1st Test in the West Indies. Called up for the next Test he responded well, putting together a vital partnership with Dilshan to drag Sri Lanka to 278 in the 1st innings. I think it is fair to say his lack of ODI scores in 2008 led to his exclusion from the recently concluded series, which is a real shame.
Kapugedara was never good enough to play Test cricket, not yet. No player should be picked for a tour of England with only three FC matches under their belt, especially whem you have barely turned 19. He was definitely picked purely on potential, something I am a firm opponent of, and his selection didn't pay off. He needs to go back to Colombo and get some experience and runs before the selectors even think about picking him again. At 21 he has plenty of time to develop into a Test class batsman.
The biggest problem I see is the fact we have no middle order batting prospects. There is little pressure on these batsmen I named who keep failing because there is no one kicking the door down.
To me it appears that four players are jostling for the two spots left in the middle order and Samaraweera and Dilshan are the most deserving candidates, though Chamara Silva is desperately unlucky and hot on their heels. There are other candidates, though whether the likes of
Lanka de Silva (averaging almost 50 over the past three domestic seasons), Indika de Saram (49) and Avishka Gunawardene (45) are young enough to be given another go at Test level is debateable.
Also what’s with people making Malinga out to be Shaun Tait? Erratic and inconsistent? Have you lot not seen him bowl in the last 2 years? I’m not trying to make him out to be McGrath-like, but he’s been decent to say the least
Considering that the only real impression he's made at Test level was against New Zealand, a team that is regularly shot to pieces by anything other than fast-medium, I wouldn't call him decent at all. Even then he was fairly expensive, as he has been for the duration of his Test career. You can't expect to go at almost 3.8 an over and be a successful Test bowler, it just isn't viablee. FWIW over the last two years Malinga averages almost 45 with an economy rate of 3.7, definitely very poor, especially considering he played in England and New Zealand, conditions that should suit his style of bowling.
