5 Batsmen to watch out for at the Cricket World Cup

#4 Kusal Perera (Sri Lanka)

Perera will need to bring his Test cricket form to the World Cup

There has been a real shake-up in Sri Lankan cricket since the last World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. There is no Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene or Tillakaratne Dilshanin the squad, and that has left a huge hole in their batting line-up. The lead up to the tournament has been a bit of a mess for the Sri Lankans, who firstly included Dimuth Karunaratne in their squad, then made him captain, despite the fact that he hasn’t played in an ODI since the last World Cup.

Because of this, they are going to need their best individual players to turn up, and one of them is without a doubt, Kusal Perera. The 28-year-old doesn’t have a great record in ODIs but has shown that he is capable of performing when it matters.

In February, he played one of the great Test innings, scoring 153, and sharing a 78-run partnership with number 11 Vishwa Fernando, as Sri Lanka chased down 304 en route to beating South Africa 2-0 in a Test series. Sri Lanka will need him to perform when it matters in England this summer.