IND vs SL | Lack of early wickets hurt us this series, reckons Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga took full responsibility for not being able to deliver early wickets to the team with him being the main weapon for Sri Lanka in the powerplay. The Indian openers got off to great starts in both the T20s and Malinga along with other bowlers were not able to take wickets in the first six overs. He felt that this was one of the main reasons why Sri Lanka lost the series 2-0.

"We needed to pick at least one or two wickets in the powerplay which we did not manage to do in this series. I need to do my job well first and unless I do that I cannot expect it to be done by anyone else," Malinga said in the post-match press conference.

"I do have the variations and the experience of playing franchise cricket but I was not able to do anything for the team this series. So I am hoping to give my best for the team," he added.

Malinga also revealed that it was tough to captain the side in the absence of experienced players like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. When Malinga was the skipper for Sri Lanka in the 2014 T20 World Cup, he had these players around him to guide him and they had ended up winning the competition. However, he has faith in the talent of the youngsters and believed that with time they will get the required experience too.

"Captaincy is tough because now I do not have the luxury of having experienced players around me. Earlier when I was the captain in 2014, I had Mahela (Jayawardene), (Kumar) Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews, and Dilshan who were all experienced players. But now with all the young players, I need to guide them and see how they are coping up with the pressure. Hopefully, they will do well in the next two months for Sri Lankan cricket," Malinga asserted.

Sri Lanka will have to play T20 World Cup qualifiers in order to qualify for the T20 World Cup in Australia. While Malinga has not featured ever in a T20 qualifier earlier, he believed that the team's hopes will rest on the skills and talent of the bowlers.

"This will be the first time that I will be playing T20 qualifiers for the T20 World Cup. However, I believe that the team has some talented youngsters and particularly bowlers who are skilful because in T20s it is the bowlers who win you games," Malinga concluded