21 October 2024 05:45 pm Views - 1565
However on Sunday, Madushka showed his class in the run chase against the West Indies scoring 69 runs off 54 balls on his debut setting up the platform for the victory despite Sri Lanka losing a few wickets early on.
Although, it's too early to judge a player upon their performance on debut, Madushka entered the national setup with high quality performance on the domestic circuit.
He averages over 50 in First-Class Cricket and maintains an average of 41 in List ‘A’ Cricket with a strike-rate close to 90.
Avishka Fernando, who has been opening the batting with Nissanka in the recent past, hasn't been able to maintain the consistency but Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya might look to give him two more opportunities in this series before making a call on him.
Should Nissanka return to the second ODI, there is also a possibility of playing Madushka in the middle order in place of Sadeera Samarawickrama.
Samarawickrama had a golden run where he scored plenty of runs a few months ago but his form hasn't been great in the recent times.
Charith Asalanka is quietly making his mark as an all-rounder. Although he was barely used as a spinner under the leadership of Dasun Shanaka, Asalanka has made himself pretty regular spinner under his captaincy.
In fact, in the last game against the West Indies, Asalanka was the only bowler to have bowled the full quota of 10 overs and he picked up the wicket of Keacy, Carty who was looking promising.
Sri Lanka already have a lot of spin-bowling options in the shape of Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Jeffery Vandersay and Mahesh Theekshana, who is very much a wicket-to-wicket bowler with the ability to bowl the ‘carrom ball’ but in Asalanka Sri Lanka has a more traditional off-spinner who could purchase a lot of turn on a spin-friendly wicket.
So, his off-spin could have a significant impact moving forward in terms of Sri Lanka having a strong variety of spin.