Chamika credits selectors for emergence of young players

By Shanuka Aravinda in Dubai

The results of the decisions taken by the selection committee appointed one and half years ago to pick new, young players are visible in Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup win, all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne said. 

Sri Lanka won their sixth Asia Cup title on Sunday, beating Pakistan by five wickets, and in the process successfully defending a score for the first time in 2022. 

Players like Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka and himself, were given opportunities by the selection committee headed by Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Karunaratne said. 

“One and a half years ago, we were nowhere. But players made a lot of sacrifices to bring the team back. Changes made by the selection committee resulted in the present position of the team. They gave youngsters a big chance,” the all-rounder said.

“One and a half years ago, Charith Asalanka, Pathum Nissanka and I were nowhere. We are thankful to them for this opportunity. We never let them down and the results are now visible.”

“The average age of players in the team is 25 years. We have long term plans to bring home more wins. I think our success in the Asia Cup will reflect during the World Cup as well.”, he added.

Karunaratne made his ODI debut in May 2021 against Bangladesh and his T20I debut against India in July 2021.

Since then he has played 18 ODIs, scoring 376 runs at an average of 34.18 with 16 wickets at an average of 28.75. He has played 29 T20I matches scoring 211 runs with 15 wickets.

Sri Lanka T20 Vice-Captain Asalanka, who was dropped for the final two matches of the team’s Asia Cup campaign, has scored 659 runs in 16 ODI matches with a century and five half centuries, and 530 runs in 24 T20I matches with three half centuries. His ODI batting average is 43.93 and T20 average is 24.09.

Nissanka who is Sri Lanka’s opener across all formats has scored 454 in 17 ODI matches with a century and three half centuries, and 738 runs in 27 T20I matches with six half centuries. He ranks eighth in the latest ICC T20I batsman rankings and has a T20 batting average of 28.28.

The Sri Lankan team was humiliated by the media after their defeat against Afghanistan in the opening match of the Asia Cup, but reversing that and putting together a winnings run was only possible because of the trust and mutual understanding among the players. 

“Media has both good and bad. Media tells both good things and bad things. We take good things and ignore the rest. We cannot comment on them because the media can build players or destroy them. That is the truth,” Karunaratne said.       

“The best example is Kusal Mendis. He was criticized by media for a long time. But now everyone talks about him. We do not care about what the media says. We are mentally strong. We do not go with the media but with our team on behalf of the country.”

“We are thankful for everyone who supports us. To those who try to bring us down we have to say that we will rise up and we showed that after losing the first match. When we lost, many had things to say. But we made those comments our strength and entered the final. Our journey will not stop here. We will go forward as a team.”, he added.