Dhananjaya’s role under microscope

Sri Lanka was handed an embarrassing defeat by South Africa in their World Cup opener in Delhi on Saturday.

The island nation was humiliated in the Asia Cup Final by India who had Sri Lanka bundled out for 50 runs, and conceding 428 runs against South Africa in a World Cup encounter was equally poor from a nation once feared in the world of cricket.

Sri Lanka had opted for a three pace attack - Matheesha Pathirana (95), Kasun Rajitha (90) Dilshan Madushanka (86) on a pretty flat wicket in Delhi with all of them going the journey. The only spin bowling specialist was young Dunith Wellalage who also conceded 81 runs in his ten overs with captain Dasun Shanaka and Dhananjaya de Silva sharing other ten overs.

Dhananjaya de Silva has been one of Sri Lanka's best batters in test format and he would and should captain Sri Lanka in the longer format. However, there are question marks over his role in the ODI team.

The off-spinner conceded 39 runs in his four overs against South Africa including an opening over which went for 16 runs. He has had success with the ball in spin friendly conditions against relatively weaker opponents but, on Saturday he looked nothing more than a part-time spinner.

On the other hand his batting position in the ODI team is quite confusing given the nature of his batting style. A technically sound right hander Dhananjaya de Silva is often seeing as someone who could anchor an innings rather than a late middle order basher.

However, batting at number 6, Silva rarely gets opportunities to build an innings. His ODI stats also don't look great either. In 83 ODIs Silva averages 26.30 and what's more concerning is that his striker rate remains under 80. For number six batsman that is simply not good enough. As a bowler, he averages 35.44 with an economy close to six which raises the question whether Silva is the right option at number six moving forward.

Obviously, he will be untouchable during the World Cup given that the Sri Lankan selectors for some reason picked Dimuth Karunaratne as the only other batsman in the sqaud whose only capable of batting as an opener and offers pretty much nothing with the ball. This means Dhananjaya de Silva shall not be dislodged from the team during the World Cup.

Of all the teams, Sri Lanka looks like the most under prepared team in the World Cup. They have had success in Zimbabwe bashing the relatively weaker sides in conditions that suited better for them, but the selectors certainly did not have the vision to pick a squad that would provide a fight in Indian. (Harsha Amarasinghe)