By Harsha Amarasinghe

When the Sri Lankan middle-order started crumbling on Saturday, not only did the Aussies look certain to secure 3-0 clean sweep, but unfortunately it felt normal in so many ways. People were still living in a country that has been destroyed by politicians, supporting a cricket team that is consistently inconsistent and a victory against a top team was a dream.

But then Shanaka produced arguably one of the finest knocks in T20 cricket to bring much joy to millions of Sri Lankans – for a few minutes, inflation wasn’t an issue, the petrol and diesel queues disappeared and it felt like they weren’t living in a crisis-hit country anymore. This is why people love sports.

Shanaka himself was under tremendous pressure coming into that game having not contributed much with ball or bat, and when a team struggles everyone is gunning for the captain. That too is the nature of the modern game.

Shanaka though answered his critics in fine style smashing the only ever fifty scored in the death overs during a chase, but Sri Lanka team still has a long way to go before they could have a realistic chance in a high-profile tournament like the World Cup.

Nissaka Needs a Partner 

Pathum Nissaka has been Sri Lanka’s best batsmen in T20s over the last year or so.

Even against the Aussies he was among the runs, although he is unable to score at the rates of Sanath Jayasuriya, he looked a rock solid batsman who could anchor an innings. Every team needs a batsman like Nissanka in the shortest format because that allows the others to have a real go at the bowling, but sadly he has been running out of partners.

Nissanka had Kusal Janith Perera as his opening partner for a while, but Perera struggled during the World Cup campaign last year and as per the comments from assistant coach Naveed Nawaz, his career looks all but over. Avishka Fernando was around for a while, but that didn’t work out either. Kusal Mendis was asked to partner Nissanka in Australia, but following a man of the match performance down under, Mendis was pushed back to the middle order for no reason. Danushka Gunathilake played a couple of cameos against Australia in the recently concluded series, but Sri Lanka needs a batsman with more consistency.

Some argue that Bhanuka Rajapaksa could be an option, but then Sri Lanka might miss out on a middle order batsman who could smash the spinners in the middle overs especially given that most teams play a left arm spinner or a right arm leg spinner in almost every game.
Perhaps it’s time Sri Lanka think out of the box and use a pinch hitter up front who could bowl two or three overs every game because in most conditions Gunathilake won’t be needed for bowling and Sri Lanka needs an upgrade.

Emergence New ‘Murali’ from WI

West Indies may have had their struggles against Babar Azam and co in Pakistan, but the emergence of a new Muttiah Muralitharan has certainly shocked the world of cricket. Until last Sunday, West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran had never bowled because he is a wicket keeper, but with Pakistan batsmen scoring runs for fun on home soil, Pooran for a change rolled his arm over, and eventually ended up bowling a full quota of ten overs and claiming four wickets in the process. 

This was something the cricket world was not prepared for. The former West Indies great Ian Bishop went on to call him “Nicholas Murali Pooran.” While the Trinidadian hard-hitter had huge success with the ball on his first attempt, it remains to be seen whether he’d reinvest himself as an all-rounder in future.