Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur's statement certainly indicates the impact that the Indian Premier League (IPL) leaves on players.
Follow Us
Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur was extremely pleased following the recently concluded stint in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 for Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera. The two players were a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) stint with the former even handed a debut by the franchise. Arthur believes that the experience gained by the duo has definitely boosted their confidence as well as brought a strut in their step.
“They brought a lot confidence. They brought confidence in their own game and abilities being recognized to play at that level. It gave our whole system a lot of confidence because suddenly the young boys, who we’ve been grooming looked at these guys and thought, ‘that could be me in a couple of years if I stay on track and do things right’. That they could progress that way. So that was good for them in that sense where they saw others got recognition through their good form. The two guys got a lot of confidence. There was a strut in their step, they realized they could mix with the big boys and they weren’t out of place in any of those set-ups,” said Arthur in an interaction with Cricbuzz.
The Sri Lanka head coach admitted that there were quite a few things that went against what was envisioned.
“It’s been tough. This is the one format that needed the most work for us and then once we lost those three players, it was almost back to the drawing boards again. But out of adversity comes a lot of good. We’ve found some young players that can fit in. Charith Asalanka… Bhanuka Rajapaksa has come back, Pathum Nissanka has come back into the team. So some good has come. It’s given the guys an opportunity to show what they can do, to stand up,” he said.
“I’m pretty clear where we are in terms of Tests and ODI cricket. We sort of got those covered now. It was Twenty20 cricket that was the format that required the most amount of work and we’re getting there. The Test team is taken care of, our ODI team has gotten better and better. Our T20 team is what we needed to nail and it’s taken a lot of work, we’ve looked at a lot of combinations and we’re comfortable now that we have quite a nice mix,” added Arthur.
The Sri Lanka head coach believes that his players are extremely positive, with a training camp conducted last month helping in defining those roles.
“The feeling is good. We’ve been together for quite a while now. Have been working hard and we clearly know the roles, guys know how they fit in. We’ve been working those roles, training those roles and it’s a great bunch of guys. They are really close and there’s a good spirit at the moment. We’ve played some good cricket in our warm-up phases here and let’s hope we go from strength to strength now,” said Arthur.
“It paid off quite a lot. That training camp allowed us to look at different options. We moved Avishka Fernando from opening the batting to No.4. We looked at certain options and we just looked a far better unit. We’ve persisted with that. Kusal Janith Perera is back which gives us a massive life at the top of the order, so we’re starting to look a good combination now,” he added.
