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Sri Lanka’s big gamble backfires
Sri Lanka's hopes of making it to Asia Cup Finals 2025 dealt a major blow on Saturday when they were beaten fair and square by spirited Bangladesh side.
Having beaten Bangladesh very comfortably in their group stage match Sri Lanka once again opted to play with just three from line bowlers in Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmamtha Chameera and Nuwan Thushara.
Throughout the group stage Sri Lanka has had convincing wins courtesy of their opening bowlers Chameera and Thushara. They were very successful up front setting the tone for rest of the bowlers, but in their Super 4 game against Bangladesh Thushara and Chameera both went for runs. This added even more pressure on their spinners and part-timers as Bangladesh make most of Sri Lanka's bowling weakness.
Dropping a world class bowler such as Maheesh Theekshana was a very brave call from the coach and selectors. This decision may have also come as a result of Theekshana's poor standards of fielding, but in all honesty it felt like the right decision to play Wellalage potentially strengthening the batting as well, but the decision was backfired in the all important game.
Theekshana's form hasn't been great in the last few months, but in terms on containing an opposition, Theekshana would still be Sri Lanka's best spin option, and that's exactly what Sri Lanka lacked on Saturday.
Sri Lanka now require to either beat both Pakistan and India to qualify for the finals and expect the results to go their way should they lose another game. Most likely route to finals for Sri Lanka as things stand, seems that they beat Pakistan with a big margin and expect Pakistan to beat Bangladesh considering India would win all of their three games. This would see Sri Lanka sneaking into finals.
Several commentators pointed out that Sri Lanka's 7-4 contamination has weakened their bowling, but moving back to 6-5 would mean they leave Kamindu Mendis out, which doesn't seem very bright.
Perhaps Sri Lanka should recall Theekshana into playing XI and expect him to bowl economically rather than targeting wickets which will see Wanindu Hasaranga running through middle orders like the old days.
Sri Lanka are certainly down, but they are still not out.
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