Mahela confident of Sri Lanka’s chances

Chinthana WASALA

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene expressed his confidence on Sri Lanka’s opportunity of being the favourites at the ICC World T20 cricket tournament which starts next week.

He said that the familiar home conditions and the crowd support will make Sri Lanka the favourits in the tournament.

He also said that the former skipper Kumar Sangakkara has fully recovered will be available for service. The nominee for four awards at the ICC Awards this year, Sangakkara suffered an injury about a month ago.

Jayawardene is expecting notable contributions from the youngsters in the upcoming event.

He will get the services of dynamic hitter Dilshan Munaweera and schoolboy spinner Akila Dananjaya who made their way to the national team after dashing performances at the Sri Lanka Premier League.

He said that Munaweera, the right-hander was on the Sri Lankan selection radars for sometime.

“Very excited about Munaweera. He had a great 12 months and did particularly well at the SLPL. He brings in a bit of fresh air to the team.”

Jayawardene also said that the 18-year-old right-arm off break bowler Dananjaya had shown a lot of maturity eventhough he is someone who had only played school cricket.

“We need to make the right calls in selecting him against the right opponents, not putting him under too much pressure,” he insisted.

“However the final playing XI will be chosen after the pitch inspection on the particular day and depending on that, we will decide weather we are going to use six or seven specialist batsmen in the team” said Jayawardena.

Sri Lanka will play the opening game of the tournament against Zimbabwe in Hambantota next Tuesday.