Experience Sri Lanka's plus in unfamiliar conditions - Rahul Dravid and Graeme Smith
Former India captain Rahul Dravid and former South African captain Graeme Smith
believe Sri Lanka will be well served by their "experienced" and
"high-performing cricketers" at the upcoming World Cup. Dravid and Smith
were speaking on Contenders, ESPNcricinfo's World Cup preview show.
"It's a really well-balanced squad. They've got some really experienced
batsmen," Dravid said. "They've got the likes of [Kumar] Sangakkara,
[Mahela] Jayawardene and [Tillakaratne] Dilshan upfront. Even with the
ball they have a good blend of some really good spinners, someone like a
Rangana Herath, Sachithra Senanayake as well. Some good fast bowlers as
well. Obviously the key for me is [Lasith] Malinga's injury,
if Malinga can recover from his [ankle] injury [for which he had
surgery in September] and bowl the way he can, that makes a huge impact
on the side."
"Their high-performing cricketers are their experienced cricketers, who
have been around for a really long time," Smith said. "You look around
at Jayawardene, Dilshan, Sangakkara on the batting front, they still
dominate the performances and that really gives the freedom to the
younger generation of batsmen to play. I think Angelo Mathews [recently]
has really stepped up and played some key innings with the bat for them
and obviously he's captain; that's crucial."
Although Sri Lanka have been beaten easily in their last two ODI series
in India and New Zealand, they have always produced strong performances
at global tournaments. Sri Lanka have reached the last two World Cup
finals, losing in 2007 to Australia and 2011 to India. They also won the
World T20 in Bangladesh last year. "The last two World Cups have been
in the West Indies and India, so the conditions have suited them a
little bit more," Dravid said. "I think this could be their big
challenge, the conditions and how they cope with it.
"I always felt that it was a nice team to bat first against, if you can
get a good total against them, you had a better chance for a win," Smith
said. "But if they bat first, and they get runs on the board, they
certainly know how to squeeze you, tighten the game with their spinners,
crafty thinkers around the game. They're a very tough team to beat in
these tournaments."
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