AUS vs SL | It's just lack of preparation and adaptation, believes Rumesh Ratnayake
Sri Lanka suffered yet another disappointing series loss as they were whitewashed Down Under and Sri Lanka’s coach Rumesh Ratnayake has blamed their preparation for the humiliating defeat. He has also justified the repeated changes by saying the management wanted to give player enough exposure.
After a dominating victory over Pakistan in Pakistan that too with a second-string team, Sri Lanka were pretty confident of giving a tough fight to the Kangaroos in their own den but it didn't go as expected. Sri Lanka was whitewashed in the T20 series and were hammered in all the three matches by a dominant Australia team.
With only Kusal Perera being able to score a half-century, Sri Lanka scored 99, 117 and 142 in the three matches. Coming to the bowling they conceded a whopping 233 in the match of the series while they followed it up with a 9-wicket and 7-wicket pounding in the following two games. David Warner was the star for the Kangaroos who piled up a ton and a couple of half-centuries as he remained unbeaten in the series.
Sri Lanka’s interim coach Rumesh Ratnayake acknowledged the unpreparedness of the team and believes that they should replicate conditions like Australia back at home in order to prepare for the upcoming World Cup.
"I thought we gave a good fight. We learned a lot of lessons from this. Our preparation wasn't the greatest. I don't say that as an excuse, but these are lessons that we can learn if we are coming again for a T20 series or any time soon to Australia on a tour. We have to have much more time in preparation in terms of wickets, simulate those sorts of wickets back home and play on those," Cricbuzz quoted Ratnayake as saying.
"It's just preparation and adaptation. We will be playing a lot in the subcontinent but at least six weeks prior to [the World Cup] if we don't play a small tournament at least in Sri Lanka pertaining to fast wickets, if we don't simulate on fast wickets we'll be in a situation like this. But you saw the curve going well towards the end. But more time spent in Australia, you will sort of learn how and what you should be doing as you go on."
Sri Lanka’s team selection was also criticised in the series as they made a lot of changes to their side every game. They picked and dropped players after a single bad effort and it played its part in destabilising the team. In reply, Ratnayake informed that they wanted to expose every player to the conditions ahead of the T20 World Cup scheduled there.
“His (Asantha de Mel - SLC's chief selector) thinking and the thinking behind it has been to give as many as possible exposure because of the upcoming World Cup next year. We had a choice of either playing Lahiru Kumara in this game or not or playing another seasoned campaigner but we thought if we don't give him another chance in this game then we might miss out on that good exposure. He bowled okay, he bowled quick, not the best, but that's a learning curve for him, that's a learning pathway for him. The changes were done so that everybody gets a chance in Australia so that the World Cup will be in Australia in the future."
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