Sri Lanka will face India in ICC Champions Trophy Group B game on Thursday. Image Source: XtraTime[/caption]Debasis Sen, London: A young Sri Lankan side will face Virat Kohli led India in a do or die encounter of ICC Champions Trophy at London on Thursday. On the eve of the match, Sri Lanka’s team manager Asanka Gurusinha said he has taken up the job as the team is very young and inexperienced.
“The main reason I took up the job was because it is a very young and inexperienced team. When Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Dilshan were there with the team. They mentored the juniors really well but after their retirement Aravinda Disalva approached me for the job and said why don’t you come and do something for the team. I thought it was good time to be there and support the young lads,” said Gurusinha.
The transition face of the Sri Lankan team has been one of the longest. The transformation of the team is talking so long though the players like Dinesh Chandimal and Chamara Kapugedara are with the team for last five six years. On being asked why they didn’t take the baton from Mahela and Sanga the former Sri Lanka batsman said,” I think it’s a difficult question to answer but what I can say is we had lots of changes in the team. In last one year we had five different captains due to injury reasons. I think this effected the team very much. One of my main goal is to have a stable team. Angelo could only feature in forty percent of our game due to his injury. He is a good leader and I need him in the team. Another reason is there was never an emphasis on grooming new talent once Kumar and Mahela were reaching the end of their careers. We simply didn't groom anyone to replace the duo,".
India skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma is consistent in the game due to their knowledge about match situations. Gurusinha said he is trying to make his young team understand that how they have to play in such moments.” You take the South Africa game there about two or three wickets we threw away, which if you really worked on the current situation. If those batsmen would have batted through and we would have won the game in 47th or 48th over. The boys need to understand the situation and work according to that,”.
Former Sri Lankan World Cup hero Gurusinha who had settled in Australia for the last 20 years responded to his cricketing colleague Aravinda De Silva's request to help settle the nation's cricketing structure.
"Since I have worked 20 years in Australia, I believe in that system and I am not going to change according to Sri Lankan system. With me, you see what you get," he said.
"I believe in speaking straight and that's been my trait since playing days. I have been direct with SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala and chairman of selectors Sanath Jayasuriya that I will do it my way."
"I want to be straight with my players and vice versa. Of course, the players can question me and I want them to challenge my methods. I don't want them to simply nod their heads and say, yes you are right. At least Angelo at times challenges me and I feel like it's great,".
With Lasith Malinga and Rangana Herath reaching their career’s end there has been quite a speculation about the new players who are set to replace them. “I just can’t bring new players to the team at this moment. We can’t add 6-7 players however replacements are a must, players retire and cricket goes on. I will look for few new players; try them initially for 6-12 months with matches against good International teams however we can’t test someone randomly against a very strong opponent like India. Before India we have 5 ODI’s and a test match with Zimbabwe and we would like to fix our team by that span of time,” concluded Gurusinha.
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