Sri Lanka under the captaincy of Tillakaratne Dilshan – Opinion
The Sri Lankan cricket team has had its share of defeats in recent months, where the runner-up team of this year’s International Cricket Council (http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625) World Cup has slumped in its performance.
Sri Lankan, were perhaps the only consistent team from Asia for nearly a decade, considering the fact that the other two major teams from the region, namely India and Pakistan, have not been so consistent in their performances over the years.
However, the Sri Lankan team has suddenly fallen deep in the pits of defeat, from where they have so far failed to climb out of.
The main cause behind their colourless performance is considered to be poor captaincy from the man in charge,
Tillakaratne Dilshan, who was appointed as the skipper of the national team after former skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the final of the mega event.
Who could have thought that the team, which played the final of the World Cup, would lose focus within few months.
While Sangakkara led his side with his calm demeanour, Dilshan is miserably failing in that area.
With Sangakkara, people always saw Sri Lanka as a team that was not willing to give up till the last moment. Sangakkara led his side maturely and he never let a pressure game get to him or his teammates.
Dilshan, on the other hand, has his work cut out for him. The opening batsman lacks charisma and fails to evolve strategy during a match, which is why http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 are on the receiving end these days.
The lacklustre performance in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 (UAE) against Pakistan is testament to the fact that all is not well in the Sri Lankan camp and drastic steps need to be taken to save the team from further decline.
Many, in Sri Lanka have called for an immediate removal of Dilshan, as they don’t see things taking a turn for the good under his captaincy.
However, the cricket authorities want to give the hard-hitting batsman more time, before taking the final decision.
Technically, Dilshan, is to remain captain of the team till their series against South Africa in December 2011. This means that the upcoming tournament could be his last as captain, unless he halts Sri Lanka from losing to the Proteas.
The tour is going to be extremely difficult as the Africans will be playing on their own surfaces, which will surely give them an edge over the touring Lankans. Besides, South Africa are always a tough side to beat while playing in any part of the world.
Meanwhile, veteran middle-order batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397, wants people to give Dilshan a break as he believes that being the captain of Sri Lanka is a tough task as he himself has been there.
Jayawardene believes that the team will need to leave their defeat by Pakistan behind them, and focus on countering http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in the upcoming series to get back to their winning ways.
“South Africa are going to be a bigger challenge mentally. We have to put this http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 series behind us. We cannot ride on what happened in the Middle East, take that extra baggage on board and think everything will turn around in
South Africa. We need to play to our strengths and take positives from the Pakistan series,” wrote Jayawardene in an article for ESPNcricinfo.
The middle-order batsman further said, “http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TM-Dilshan-c2691 has taken up a tough job as captain. You need to give him time.”
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