Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews said that he would give importance to building a team for the future rather than seek immediate success as his teams complete their preparation for the upcoming ODI series against Australia. Mathews claimed that Sri Lanka are building a team with the 2019 World Cup in mind and is hopeful of grooming more and more youngsters in the side as the big tournament approaches.
"Our long-term goal is the 2019 World Cup, but we'll try and take it series by series," he said. "Winning is important, but trying to build up a team is also important - so we'll try and strike a balance in that. We've got a very good mixture of experience and youth in the team. Most of them are newcomers - the likes of Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis. Except for a few players who have played 50-60 games, it is a very exciting time for us."
Another youngster the Sri Lankan team management has high hopes from is 18-year-old top-order batsman Avishka Fernando who has earned a call-up to the national side after scoring back-to-back centuries for the Under-19 side against England, despite having not played any first-class or List A matches.
Though Mathews conceded that the chances of Fernando making his debut in the upcoming series are less, he is confident that he will benefit immensely from the experience gained by sharing the dressing room with the senior players.
"Avishka looked really good in the centre yesterday," Mathews said. "Most importantly we wanted to share that dressing room atmosphere and the experience with a younger player like him. Especially because we're playing at home we have the advantage of bringing in an Under-19 player to share the dressing room with the likes of the Tillakaratne Dilshans and Dinesh Chandimals. That's our main idea, but if there's a chance he'll play as well."
After a disappointing tour of England, Sri Lanka came back strongly to whitewash Australia 3-0 at home in the Test series and will be hopeful of carrying forward the momentum in the limited-overs format as well. Mathews is still undecided about the team combination to be adopted in the ODI format but indicated that the focus will remain largely on the spinners as was the case in the Test series as well.
"We've got so many spinners to choose from, a good set of batters and a couple of fast bowlers," he said. "We're yet to decide whether we want to go with two spinners and two fast bowlers or three spinners and one fast bowler. We'll come back tomorrow, take a look at the wicket, and then decide."
All-rounder Thisara Perera could also get a look in and despite a below-average run of form, Mathews feels that the 27-year-old’s abilities as a bowler could be crucial to his side striking the right balance with the team selection.
"Thisara is a very important player," Mathews said. "He hasn't performed extremely well - the way he would have liked to, or we would have liked him to. But he's a character who could turn things around at any given day with bat or ball. We're hoping he'll come good in this series. Our expectations of him are as a bowler, mainly.
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