da imperador bet： The Sri Lankan selectors have made four changes to the one-day squadthat won the ARY Gold Trophy in Sharjah in April and have revealed achange of strategy for the forthcoming triangular series against Indiaand New Zealand
da doce： Charlie Austin09-Jul-2001The Sri Lankan selectors have made four changes to the one-day squadthat won the ARY Gold Trophy in Sharjah in April and have revealed achange of strategy for the forthcoming triangular series against Indiaand New Zealand.Five fast bowlers and only two specialist spinners have been picked inthe 15-man squad, an unusual combination on Sri Lanka pitches. Thefinal team is expected to include three fast bowlers.The new look squad, the first selected by the new five-man panel ofselectors, confirms that the team management and selectors are nowfocusing their attention on the 2003 World Cup, where it is felt thatSri Lanka will need the services of fast bowling all rounders.Suresh Perera and Dulip Liyanage have been marked out as fast bowlerscapable of scoring valuable runs in the lower middle order and theyhave been included in the squad in place of Akalanka Ganegama andThilan Samaraweera. The recall of 23-year-old Perera is based uponpotential, rather than hard statistics. In his last 11 ODIs heaverages just 10.6 and has only scored two half centuries in his 36match first class career. Nevertheless, he is clearly an excitingprospect, possessing the priceless potential to change the course of amatch with both bat or ball.Dulip Liyanage, no youngster at 29 years of age, is recalled after animpressive first class season for Colts CC, in which he averaged 22.7with the bat and claimed 38 wickets. He made his ODI and Test debutway back in 1992/3 before suffering from a debilitating ankle injury.Dilhara Fernando, Chaminda Vaas, and Nuwan Zoysa, subject to hisexpected recovery from an ankle injury, all retain their places in thesquad.All the fast bowlers can look forward to helpful conditions in thetournament, especially when they play India, as the curators have beenasked to leave more grass on the pitches. Slower pitches are, however,expected in the New Zealand games.Avishka Gunawardene and Chamara Silva are recalled after impressiveperformances against Pakistan A, in place of Tillakaratne Dilshan andIndika de Saram, both of whom have failed to grasp the opportunitiesgiven to them by previous selection committees.Tillakaratne Dilshan stormed onto the international scene 18 monthsago with an unbeaten Test century in his second game, but hasdisappointed thereafter, especially in the Test arena. In one-daycricket he has played 14 games, but has not batted in the top six onsix occasions and has never been given an opportunity to bat higher upthe order than number six.Indika de Saram, nearly 28, has now played in 15 ODIs, but has failedto pass fifty once and boasts a highest score of just 38 and anaverage of 16.63. He too, however, has often suffered from a lowlyposition in the batting order.Kumar Sangakkara retains his place in the squad though he has been inpoor form recently. With Romesh Kaluwitharan likely to take thegloves, Sangakkara will be forced to compete with Gunawardene andSilva for the final batting places.Should Sri Lanka opt to play seven batsmen and four bowlers, then bothGunawardene and Sangakkara will probably play ahead of Silva. However,they may well play six batsmen and ask Kumar Dharmasena, retaining hisplace despite a stiff challenge from Thilan Samaraweera, to bat atnumber seven. This would leave room for just one of the three.The squad:Sanath Jayasuriya (Capt), Marvan Atapattu (Vice Capt), RomeshKaluwitharana, Russel Arnold, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sanagakkara,Avishka Gunawardene, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Dulip Liyanage,Suresh Perera, Nuwan Zoysa, Kumar Dharmasena, Muttiah Muralitharan,Dilhara Fernando
