5 areas Sri Lanka need to work on to be more competitive

It was a sight to behold for the Sri Lankan fans when Arjuna Ranatunga led the island nation to the World Cup title in 1996. With that title-winning campaign, Sri Lanka had proclaimed themselves as one of the major giants of the game in the coming time ahead. However, the quality of Sri Lankan Cricket has started degrading in recent times and has been on a steady decline ever since.

But, where did the downfall start? Precisely with the successive retirement of experienced heads like Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan and others. Their retirement, all at once, left a massive void in the Lankan ranks. Lack of enough experienced players in the side meant the absence of a guiding force to show the youngsters the path. So, the current crop of players hasn’t grown much.

However, that is how international cricket works. They have to move forward shrugging away the disappointment of their heavy whitewash across all formats against India and an ODI series whitewash against Pakistan. What they need to do is to draw inspiration from the little silver linings they have; something like the miraculous Test series victory against Pakistan in the UAE.

Apart from that they also need to work on a few areas in order to be more competitive against other sides. Let us have a look at some of the areas Sri Lanka need to work on.

#1) Temperament and patience

The current crop of Lankan players lacks proper temperament. None of the Lankan batsmen except Dimuth Karunaratne at present have the patience in them to play the long innings in any format of the game. Even in T20Is, batsmen need to mix aggression with caution. But, the Lankan players know only a one way road of slogging it out in T20Is. And when it comes to the other formats, the same story follows as they lack the patience to build up an innings.

They have the habit of throwing their wickets away. Fancy shots lead to their downfall more often than not. This is the area they need to work on. Patience and temperament are the two things they need to build in order to be successful in the international arena.

#2) Consistency in bowling

Sri Lanka has quite a few talented young bowlers at the moment. They have shown that the have the potential to be future stars with sporadic moments of brilliance.

However, what they lack is consistency. They can’t keep a good spell going for long in a match. They err in line and lengths often and have to pay the price for that. Even if they come good in one match they follow it up with a poor bowling performance in the very next one.

Pacers Lahiru Gamage, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal and spinners like Akila Dananjaya, Seekuge Prasanna and others have the ability in them to win matches on their own. But, they need to bring in the consistency factor in themselves first. Without it, they won’t be able to survive long in international cricket.

#3) Batsmen need to learn to face quality pace bowlers

The Sri Lankan batsmen are good players of spin like all Asian batsmen. However, at the same time, they struggle against quality pace bowlers especially when there the conditions offer a bit of seam movement to the bowlers.

They need to learn how to see off good spells and weather the storms. More than that, they have to time their offense and defense properly. No one can slog out their way through a good spell and they have to learn that quickly. Only a proper judgment of shots according to the line and length of the pacers can help them overcome their weakness.

The Sri Lankan think tank and administration should set up proper infrastructure in home conditions as well to bring about a change in their approach to face fast bowlers. It is necessary for them to be successful in overseas conditions.

#4) Fielding

Sri Lanka is a pretty young team but the fielding standards are not up to the modern standards of international cricket. They have often been sloppy on the field dropping easy and crucial catches. The ground fielding isn’t that great as well. They hardly attack the ball while fielding which doesn’t put any pressure on the batsmen running between the wickets.

Good fielding standards can boost the confidence of the bowlers as well. So, they need to work on their fielding. Fielding is more a mental thing than being technical. They have to believe that the can pull off difficult chances. They need to develop that kind of mindset. Only then, they will be able to challenge the oppositions.

#5) Never-say-die spirit

The current crop of Sri Lankan players always gives up too easily. If anyone of the batting, bowling or fielding units fails to perform well, the morale of the other units becomes low as well.

They don’t show the stomach for a fight. They don’t believe that they have the ability to back a bad batting performance with a good bowling one or vice-versa. These are tough times for them and they need to believe in themselves.

The Lankan team has become a punching bag for other teams in recent times. However, they need to show that this is not what they actually are. They were World-Cup Winners once and two-time World Cup finalists as well. The players should draw inspiration from the previous generations of players. They should not give up too easily. They need to instill a never-say-die attitude in themselves.