Sri Lanka mull over three-man seam attack

Sri Lanka outplayed in the first one-day international at Dambulla on Sunday are looking to play three seamers in the second match that takes place at the Pallekele International Stadium tomorrow.

“We would like to play three pacies depending on the type of wicket we get. The wicket itself looks pretty good,” said Sri Lanka cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha as the team practiced under lights at Pallekele yesterday.

Sri Lanka went into the first game with two seamers and two spinners with Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera as the two all-rounders. But the bowling was made to look mediocre when Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli shared an unbroken stand of 197 to steer India to a comfortable nine-wicket win.

“It is an inexperienced bowling attack so it’s something that we need to be patient about. Hopefully we can improve. It’s not easy when somebody like Dhawan goes after the bowling that was a bit of problem,” said Gurusinha.

Sri Lanka’s third seamer in the squad is Dushmantha Chameera who could get a game on Thursday.

Sri Lanka are sticking to their squad of 15 players for the entire five-match series thus bringing some sort of consistency to selection barring any injuries.

More than the bowling it was the failure of the batsmen to put up a decent total that led to Sri Lanka’s heavy defeat.

From a strong position of 150-2 their batting simply caved in to be all out for 216 in 43.2 overs.

“The way we were going 300 was on the cards but I don’t think anybody expected that to happen not even the team they didn’t expect to be all out. It’s a lesson learnt,” said Gurusinha.

“It’s an issue in itself after being 133-1 at one stage. It’s not the attitude but it came down to application and shot selection lack of experience could also be one.

“Nick (Pothas) and his coaching staff are working very hard hopefully we will see a better batting performance. They have spoken about it which areas they can improve and which areas they can change,” he said.

On the question of whether Mathews should be moved up the batting order after he was left stranded on 36 not out without any partners, Gurusinha said, “In that game yes, but still he had Thisara and Kapu (Kapugedera) to support him so he will bat at five.”

Gurusinha admitted that India was a vastly experienced side and said, “Hopefully we can get there in the next six months or so.”