Dinesh Chandimal has an onerous task on hand; to motivate an untested side in international cricket and find ways to compete with the Indians in their backyard and even spring a surprise on the home team. How will the young captain view an Indian side that will not have Virat Kohli in the team?
Chandimal would like to enter the fray as an underdog in the three-match Twenty20 series to be played at Pune, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam before the two teams prepare for the Asia Cup Twenty20 and thereafter the ICC World Twenty20.
The 26-year-old Chandimal appeared as a bright spark amidst a new crop of Sri Lankan cricketers some six years ago, but somehow he’s not been able to sustain his form with the bat across all formats.
Twenty20 is not a format a batsman of the class of Chandimal should be judged, but as captain in the real slam-bang variety of the game in 14 matches, his highest has been 22 against Pakistan some two years ago. And when he donned the big gloves in this format, his highest has been 14 against South Africa in August 2013. The bold and brave wicketkeeper batsman has much more value than his average of 13.46 suggests in 31 outings.
The Sri Lankan selectors were certainly not wrong in assessing the quality of cricket, especially the fearless batting attitude he brought to a side that was altogether dependant on Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena at the turn of 2010.
There was class written all over his 111 against India in his second ODI at Harare in June 2010 and his second century in his sixth ODI confirmed his potential when he uncorked an unbeaten 105 against England at Lord’s in July 2011. Since then he has not been spectacular and has not added another century for four and a half years; hence his average is a little over 30.
But he’s been consistent in the traditional Test cricket in which he’s run up an average of 45.88 in 25 matches in which he has scored five centuries and ten half centuries.
The young cricketer has been thrust upon leadership in the past and now he’s captain of the team because Lasith Malinga is yet to recover from a knee related ailment. Chandimal will also be without Angelo Mathews, who has been laid low with a nagging groin problem and to add to the cup of woes, left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, fast bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara and Nuwan Pradeep are also on rehab before the Asia Cup and ICC World Twenty 20.
Sri Lanka’s top wicket takers in Twenty20 are Malinga (74), Ajantha Mendis (66), Kulasekara (48), Mathews (32) and Thisara Perera (27). With none of them in the squad, the visitors are handicapped in the bowling department. The selectors were forced to recall Dilhara Fernando; the seamer played his last match in the winter of 2011.
Sri Lanka will also be without Dilshan for the first match at Pune. The experienced opener is recovering from a hand injury and it’s reported he may fly to Ranchi. As of now, Thisara Perera is the top Twenty20 batsman in the side with 503 runs and he’s followed by Chamara Kapugedera (393) and Chandimal (323).
As the team went through its first training session at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Chandimal will be mulling over one too many facets of the game his team will have to excel in order to surprise Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team.
Sri Lanka, under Chandimal, lost both Twenty20 matches to New Zealand at Mount Maunganui and Auckland in January this year.
