Sri Lanka national cricket team led by Charith Asalanka took on the Indian national cricket team led by Suryakumar Yadav in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Saturday, July 27.
This was Sri Lanka’s first match after Charith Asalanka was appointed as the new captain of the T20I team. This happened after champion all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga resigned from his post following the poor campaign of the Sri Lanka Lions under his leadership in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. Sri Lanka lost to South Africa and Bangladesh in the first round of the T20 World Cup, which led them to face a group stage elimination.
Wanindu Hasaranga, like his predecessors, was not the captain of the T20I team for a long time as he led the team in just 10 matches. In those matches, he led the team to victory in 6 matches and lost 4 matches as captain.
Meanwhile, Charith Asalanka was given the responsibility of captaining the team as he turned out to be the crisis man of the Sri Lankan team. Even though his team went through a tough phase in the past few years, both on and off the field, Asalanka has emerged as a consistent performer. Since his debut in 2021, Charith Asalanka’s stock has been on the rise and he has become a reliable batsman of the team. Moreover, he has been the team’s leader at the U-19 level and has also captained the senior team in a few matches.
Sri Lanka also have a new head coach, Sanath Jayasuriya, who will take over on an interim basis as his term ends in mid-September. He was appointed to the role after Chris Silverwood stepped down from the post in late June, following the conclusion of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
We weren’t up to par on the powerplay – Charith Asalanka
Talking about the first T20I between India and Sri Lanka, the hosts won the toss and elected to bowl first. After being decimated in the first 10 overs, the bowlers made a strong comeback to restrict the opposition to 213/7. Matheesha Pathirana emerged as the leading wicket-taker in the innings by picking up a haul of 4 wickets.
As far as the run-chasing was concerned, Sri Lanka got off to a flying start thanks to Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis. However, once they got out, things went downhill for the hosts. They went from 140/1 to 170/10, losing the match by 43 runs.
After the match, Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka expressed disappointment with the bowlers’ performance in the powerplay overs but was pleased with the way they bounced back in the second half of the innings.
“We weren’t up to par on the powerplay, but in the last half we recovered quite well. At some point we thought they might go for 240, but we did well.”
Charith Asalanka, while speaking about the batting, stated that he was not happy with the way Sri Lanka’s middle order was batting and that they could have done a better job. Charith Asalanka indirectly criticised Kamindu Mendis and Dasun Shanaka as well as Wanindu Hasaranga and said:
“I’m a little disappointed with the way the middle order batted, we could have done better. (As for the rest of his team), it’s an experiment, this is the way we have to go in the future.”