The Sri Lankan batting lineup had a forgettable outing against India in the Asia Cup 2023 final. The island nation astoundingly was bundled out for 50 runs. Sri Lanka’s head coach Chris Silverwood reflects on the defeat. Chris Silverwood was crestfallen with his team’s performance in a key clash.
Sri Lanka’s batters looked in a hurry to smash boundaries despite the track being a green top. The likes of Kusal Perera & Kusal Mendis should have played out the tricky phase of powerplay overs rather than playing an aggressive brand of cricket. Sri Lanka’s batting unit looked clueless against a quality attack.
Now there are questions raised over the batting positions of the likes of Dhananjay de Silva & skipper Dasun Shanaka. The duo are batting way down the order whereas they have got a brilliant track record at the top order. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the management perhaps needs to make slight changes ahead of ODI WC 2023.
The defeat will hurt all the players- Chris Silverwood
During the press conference, Chris Silverwood admitted the fact that Sri Lanka had a bad day against India in the final of Asia Cup 2023. Silverwood praised India’s fast bowling unit and at the same time pointed out that the batters should have shown some sort of intent & character.
“Clearly it was a bad day in the office for us, a superb bowling performance there. I think we came up against a high-class bowling unit and equally, we didn’t help ourselves (with our batting performance). It was disappointing to finish the way we did,” said Chris Silverwood.
“It’s one of those things we can’t dwell on too much because we have a big tournament coming up, obviously with the World Cup. So there are lessons to learn, questions to be asked in the dressing room, and we have to move forward from this,” he stated.
“First of all, we played some very good cricket to get to the final, we had to fight very hard to get here. So for me it’s an achievement in itself to be in the final. Clearly to lose in the manner we have there is very disappointing and it’s something that will hurt all the players and the coaching staff as well,” he added.
I think we are going to have to rebuild to put the confidence back in the players. Obviously we are given a little bit of a break now, go home, relax, refresh the brain, get back together and start rebuilding from where we left off,” he concluded.
We have to be on top of our game- Chris Silverwood
Chris Silverwood said that such sort of defeat can spur the team ahead of the ODI WC 2023 and can motivate the players. Silverwood heaped praise on Dunith Wellalage and Matheesha Pathirana. Silverwood pointed out that individuals have stood up in crunch matches
“Sometimes, a little bit of kick in the rear end before you go into big tournaments is not the worst for me either. Maybe this is just a bit of a wake up call. For us to compete against India, Australia, New Zealand, those types of guys, we have to be on top of our games, we have to make sure we turn up consistently all the time. Maybe this is something that we can use to motivate us through the World Cup,” said Chris Silverwood.
“If we take today out of the equation, we’ve seen two youngsters put their hands up in Wellalage and Pathirana. We’ve seen the two of them emerge onto the world stage. Sadeera has played some good knocks, we’ve seen Mendis come back into form,” he stated.
“So there have been some good individual performances in there, and some good team performances. But clearly consistency is the thing that we need to bring into our game, and make sure that we do it day in and day out. And then we can go toe to toe with teams like India,” he added.
We just need to keep working hard- Chris Silverwood
Chris Silverwood was quite optimistic that the side can bounce back in the marquee ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Chris Silverwood said that Dasun Shanaka would come good with the bat in hand despite having a terrible Asia Cup 2023
“From my point of view, it’s trying to make sure that we put confidence into him, we’d love his tails up. And he continues to train hard and work hard. Hopefully we can turn that corner with him. We just need to keep working hard and try to get that confidence into him,” said Chris Silverwood.
“One score and he’ll be away. We know what he’s capable of, we’ve seen it before, Dasun Shanaka can be a very destructive batsman. And we’ve seen in this tournament he’s more than a useful bowler as well. So for me he’s one score away from flying again. But obviously there’s some hard work to do there as well,” he stated.
“Obviously there’s more to being a captain than just the scores and one thing Dasun is very good at, he’s got the respect of the dressing room. He understands the players, he shows the players a lot of love and he gives them a lot of support,” he added.
“So for me it’s returning that love and support to him, and the fact that we’re going to make sure we’re there for him, we’ll help him work hard and try to turn a corner with him. But he’s not on his own in there, he’s got a lot of support in that dressing room,” he concluded.