Jayawardene plays down lack of experience
Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, has played down the lack of experience ahead of the T20 World Championship, saying that his team have it in them to win the tournament
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"The shorter the game, it becomes more open. There are no clear favourites. A lot of sides have a lot of allrounders trying to play a different brand of cricket. Everyone has a very good opportunity to do well," Jayawardene told the Nation.
"We haven't played that much but we have an understanding of what is required basically. We need to make slight adjustments with a few individuals and how we've got to approach it. At the end of the day it has to be basic cricket and play proper cricket. I think we have a very good chance."
Jayawardene said he would be counting on some of his key players to adjust to different situations. "Whoever we put out on the park has to know what role he has to play. We've got some experienced players who can adjust to different situations. There are key players like Sanath (Jayasuriya), Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara) and myself plus the bowlers. They have a very good opportunity to be an attacking unit. If we can pick up wickets it is always going to be good because we can slow things down. We'll definitely be looking forward to attacking a lot."
"For twenty overs you've got ten wickets in hand. Basically you give a licence to the batsmen to go after the bowling. If the bowlers can keep a cool head and try and take wickets upfront and be more aggressive with the ball, you will definitely create more opportunities."
Preparation wise Sri Lanka have not done anything different considering the intensity Twenty20 cricket is going to bring. "We are gradually getting into the one-day mood of the game and making slight adjustments regarding different situations that we have to face in Twenty20 cricket. We first need to see the wickets, how it is going to be in South Africa. Once we see know that we can have a plan how we'll go about it and see what our options are. We've got a balanced squad with a few allrounders in it."
Jayawardene said that the Twenty20 format would revolutionise cricket. "Twenty20 is another different format. It will definitely test different skills of individual players. It will be a definite revolution in world cricket. To have a World Cup, I don't know whether it is the right time, whether it is too soon. It is the first time it's happening and everyone is looking forward to it to see how they can handle the situation, how big is the occasion."
Sri Lanka can consider themselves to be novices when it comes to Twenty20 cricket at the international level. Their track record is just three Twenty20 internationals of which they have won two. It is not that other countries have played more international Twenty20 matches than Sri Lanka, but the fact remains that they have been playing it at domestic level for a longer period. In Sri Lanka, the format was introduced in tournament form among clubs in 2005 but it has not really caught up as it has in most other countries.
Sri Lanka has two practice matches against Pakistan and New Zealand on September 8 and 9 before they go into the tournament proper. Sri Lanka's opening match of their group (Group C) is against Kenya on September 14 followed by the one against New Zealand on September 15. The first two teams in each of the four groups will proceed to the Super Eight stages.
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