Chamara Kapugedera will lead Sri Lanka in the next two ODIs. (Source: PT)
Sri Lanka will face India in the third ODI of five-match series on Sunday at Pallekele and the home side would be led by stand-in skipper Chamara Kapugedara after Upul Tharanga was handed two-match suspension for maintaining slow over-rate in the previous game. The acting skipper has said that the Sri Lankan team is pretty confident after the kind of show they put up in second ODI.
“I don’t think we are struggling. I think there is a good atmosphere in the team. The way we played we are having lot of confidence. Everyone is together and hopefully we can pull off one win. After the last game we believe that we can win. We played really well,” Kapugedera said on the eve of the third ODI at Pallekele.
Sri Lanka rode on spinner Akila Dananjaya’s six-for to reduce India to 131/7 from 109/0. The home team, however, didn’t capitalise on this and eventually lost the match by 7 wickets but Kapugedara hailed the off-spinner’s efforts.
“Especially it was a fine effort by Akila Dhanajanya,” the Lanka stand-in skipper said.
“One hurdle we have to overcome and things will fall in line. We are disappointed to lose the last game. But we need to take all the positives from it as well. We don’t want to take any negatives. We need to take positives. Hopefully the guys will come up and do the job,” Kapugedera added.
Talking about his own role, the stand-in skipper expressed his delight and said that it’s a huge honour to lead the national team.
“I have captained my school teams and I have captained Provincial and club teams. I have captained at every domestic competition. It is a huge honour for me to captain my country. I am really happy to get this opportunity,” said Kapugedera.
“It’s a challenge for me. Every game is a challenge and I am ready for that challenge. As a team we discussed a lot of things. Whatever we spoke we need to put them into practice,” he added.
Opener Dhanushka Gunathilaka was also ruled out for 10 days after elbow injury and Sri Lanka have a task to figure out an appropriate replacement for the same. Kapugedara suggested that the call for this would be taken by the selectors.
“We haven’t actually gone through the team or finalised the team. We are still looking around for options. It is hard to say now as to who will open or who will play in the middle order. The selectors will take this call,” he said.
“Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne came into the squad due to injury to Danushka Gunathilaka and ban of Upul. The last game whatever the changes we did that was based on our plans. We are not looking at all the remaining three games, but our main focus is winning the next game and to find a winning combination for the next game,” said Kapugedera.
Sri Lanka need to win two out of the three remaining matches to mathematically qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
“I am not saying that those are things that matter, but more than any of those, what we are focusing on is to what we need to do to win tomorrow’s game. We don’t want to look too much forward. Winning the next game is the most important thing for us,” Kapugedera signed off.
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