Asia Cup defeat is just a wake up call, says Silverwood

Losing Asia Cup final is just a wake-up call before the world cup where we have to compete against teams like India, Australia, and New Zealand – against whom- we have to be on top of our game said Sri Lanka cricket head coach Chris Silverwood.

we played some very good cricket to get to the Asia cup cricket final. We had to fight very hard. For me it was an achievement.”said Sri Lanka cricket head coach Chris Silverwood after the final which India won by ten wickets to clinch their eighth title .
    Clearly it was a bad day. Clearly we came up against a very high class bowling unit. It was a shame to finish the way we did. It’s one of those things we can’t dwell on too much because we’ve got a big tournament coming up. There are lessons to learn and questions to be asked in the dressing room. We have to move forward.”added Silverwood the former England fast bowler and head coach.

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh twice, won a nail-biter against Pakistan, and also defeated Afghanistan narrowly – though that was in a match in which Afghanistan were pursuing victory in the 40th over, in order to qualify via net run-rate and except for the final Sri Lanka had good fighting spirit .

Silverwood also said there were more positives during the Asia Cup.Especially pleased with all rounder Dunith Wellalage who finished second-equal in the tournament wicket takers list with 10 wickets at an average of 17.90, as well as paceman Matheesha Pathirana who topped the chart with 11 wickets at 24.45. Neither Wellalage nor Pathirana would have played if Sri Lanka’s first choice attack had been fit.

“But if we take today out of the equation, we’ve seen two youngsters put their hands up, in Dunith Wellalage, and Matheesha Pathirana. We’ve seen two of them really put up their hands on the world stage. The top order batter Sadeera Samarawickrama’s played some good knocks (he hit 215 runs at 35.83). Deputy skipper Kusal Mendis has come back into form (270 runs at 45). But clearly consistency is something we need to bring into the game.”added Silverwood.

This was, however, the third time in 2023 in which Sri Lanka have been all out for less than 100, having been dismissed for 73 in Thiruvananthaputam, also by India, in January, then decked for 76 by New Zealand in March.

“We bat all the way down to No. 7, so it is a concern,” Silverwood said. “It’s something we have to talk about. I’d encourage us to face the problem head on. We cannot let this happen.”

Meanwhile Chris Silverwood said after 3- 4 days rest Sri Lanka squad will resume their training to focus on World cup .We hope Wanindu Hasaranga will come back to the team after recovering from his injury while Dushmantha Chameera is still recovering and expect a positive medical report Anyway this Asia Cup is a good eye opener and learnt more lessons from it concluded Silverwood.