Sri Lanka have the most experienced team at the World Cup and are driven by the desire to make up for defeats in the last two finals, but their batting is top-heavy and their bowling perhaps over-reliant on Lasith Malinga’s uncertain fitness
Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Feb-2015Sri Lanka sometimes go into global tournaments underdone. Other times they have carried misfiring personnel. Occasionally key players have been injured, or, like on this occasion, poor form has pockmarked their approach to the big events. They rarely seem to have the firepower of the ‘favourites’. They are so beset by poor governance they played the last World T20 in the middle of a contracts dispute. But they won.Sri Lanka are like the kung fu movie protagonist that takes a hundred knocks to the head, but somehow makes it to the end of the film. Or the old Nokia phone that is jammed in doors and dropped in puddles, but continues to live on.Fact box
Previous World Cups
1975: Group stage
1979: Group stage
1983: Group stage
1987: Group stage
1992: Group stage
1996: Winners
1999: Group stage
2003: Semi-finalists
2007: Finalists
2011: Finalists
Squad
Angelo Mathews (capt.), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Dinesh Chandimal, Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Sachithra Senanayake, Dhammika Prasad
Fixtures
February 14 – v New Zealand, Christchurch
February 22 – v Afghanistan, Dunedin
February 26 – v Bangladesh, Melbourne
March 1 – v England, Wellington
March 8 – v Australia, Sydney
March 11 – v Scotland, Hobart
Angelo Mathews has three former captains in his side. He has already been at the helm for two standoffs with the board. But in the six major campaigns he has played in, Sri Lanka have failed to reach the semi-finals only once.It is not that Sri Lanka have consistently been the best side in these tournaments – often their early outings have been scratchy. But somewhere in each campaign metal strikes flint and a fire spreads. In the 2007 World Cup, Lasith Malinga had his four in four. In the 2009 World T20, the team rallied around Tillakaratne Dilshan’s electric starts. In the 2014 World T20, Rangana Herath turned a match Sri Lanka had no business winning, with his 5 for 3.If the four previous finals had not already put the cricket world on notice, actually winning the last big tournament has. They lost 2-4 to New Zealand in January, but if Malinga is fit and firing, Sri Lanka will be hopeful that big-tournament magic will catch them again.The batting is still top-heavy, but it is some top. Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara have been mighty consistent in ODIs over the past two years, and in Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka have one of the best big-match players in the game. They are smuggling inexperience in that lower middle order, but Mathews has become adept at rescuing the innings, though he has been short of support in recent weeks.Sri Lanka’s fans have watched too many finals to be wowed by just another good dash to the knockout stages. They expect the team to return with the trophy. The cricketers themselves will be desperate to bag the big prize too, not least because this will be several senior players’ last chance to do so.World Cup PedigreeESPNcricinfo Ltd
They have not won since 1996, but aside from the awful 1999 campaign, Sri Lanka teams have largely emerged from World Cups with credit, reaching the semi-finals in 2003 and the final in both World Cups since. The near-miss in 2011 was for many in the team the greatest disappointment in their limited-overs careers, and only a World Cup win could bring full catharsis.X-FactorSri Lanka have recently found limited overs success by stacking the XI with allrounders – particularly of the fast-bowling variety – and they built a team purposefully, to ensure Mathews will not be short of bowling options even when Sri Lanka play an XI that bats deep. Mathews himself as well as Thisara Perara and Nuwan Kulasekara have had success with both disciplines in Australia, and there is Dilshan’s canny offspin to break a big partnership or apply a squeeze. The challenge for Mathews is managing these resources intelligently, and ensuring he plays enough frontline bowlers in his XI.Players in focusAngelo MathewsMathews will almost certainly have more shots at World Cup glory, but yet the stakes are high for him at this event. The team is bracing for several high-profile retirements, and it is Mathews who has the task of putting together a new team in the wake of their exits. It is a daunting prospect, but one that will become immeasurably easier if Mathews already has a World Cup to his name, with all the confidence and public goodwill that comes with the trophy.Mahela JayawardeneThe only man with tons in a World Cup final and a semi-final, few players deserve a grand finish to their international careers as much as Jayawardene. A dip in his ODI form early in 2014 helped hasten his Test retirement, and he will hope that being active in only one format will spur a return to his best. Jayawardene has not prospered on bouncier surfaces in Tests, but he has played important ODI innings in Australia and has only grown more innovative in his later years.Lasith MalingaMalinga is not so much the leader of Sri Lanka’s limited-overs attack as he is its cornerstone. The team’s bowling plans revolve so tightly around Malinga that it is the quality of his performance that often defines games. He was delivering thunderbolts in 2014’s Asia Cup and the World T20, but had since then put on a few pounds and lost a little pace – perhaps due to the ankle injury that later required surgery. He will not have had much time at the bowling crease before the tournament begins, thanks to the lengthy recovery time. Given this may be his final shot at a World Cup as well, Malinga should need little incentive to be fit and fast at the curtain-raiser on February 14.Game StyleSri Lanka have developed a reputation as a street-smart unit with a taste for aggression, and that is the approach that has historically brought them most success. With two new balls in play, starts may not be as brisk as usual, but their batting is capable of responding to most situations, thanks to the adaptability that the likes of Sangakkara, Dilshan, Jayawardene and Mathews provide.PredictionAnything less than a semi-final place would be a disaster, and even that will not please Sri Lanka fans, who have come to expect much from their team. Adjusting to the conditions, and finding that collective intensity that has fueled past campaigns will be key to their performance.World Cup stats Sri Lanka inflicted the lowest-ever World Cup total of 36 on Canada in 2003 Of the five top wicket-takers in World Cups, two are Sri Lankans. Muttiah Muralitharan is at second place with 68 wickets, and current bowling coach Chaminda Vaas is at fourth, with 49 Sri Lanka have the most experienced squad in the World Cup by a distance. Sri Lanka’s 15 have 2017 ODI caps between them. The next-highest is Pakistan with 1314.If they were an actorAmy Adams: Fly in under the radar to get close to the big prize, but don’t often take the trophy homeTheme songSo close, yet so far – Elvis Presley
