Mahela’s presence is a huge boost for Lankan Juniors, says Avishka

“Having Mahela Jayawardene with us during the under 19 world cup is a huge plus point. He brings in a lot of experience and we hope to use it for our betterment,” said Sri Lanka under 19 head coach Avishka Gunawardena at the virtual media briefing from Team Hotel in Guyana yesterday. Both Jayawardena and Gunawardena played for the National under 19 team in 1995 and both of them have very close understanding among them. Jayawardena who is also the National team consultant did a fine job during the world cup qualifying games in Oman and his tactics made good results prior to the world cup. He made good decisions to change batting order as well as team selection for the game which really worked out in Sri Lankan team’s favour.

The Sri Lanka Under 19 team is now undergoing a three day quarantine period in Guyana and will commence practices today.The main thing is to adjust to the Caribbean conditions.

Sri Lanka team will play two warm-up games prior to the World Cup against Uganda and Ireland on January 10 and 12 respectively at Guyana National Stadium.Sri Lanka U19s will play their world cup league round matches against Scotland, West Indies and Australia in Group D on January14, 17, and 21 respectively.

Meanwhile head coach Avishka Gunawardena reckons bowling is the strength of the team.The bowlers are our strength. Especially, the spinners.” Gunawardena also mentioned that his team is looking forward to winning games in the World Cup mainly with their spin and the fast bowling unit will act as a support.Both specialist coaches Chamila Gamage (fast bowling) and Sachith Pathirana (Spin) are with the team while Upul Chandana also guiding them as fielding coach during this tour.

“Except for Matheesha (Pathirana), the rest of the fast bowlers have been given the role of containing. Matheesha is a very good bowler and he is capable of picking wickets. So we use him with the old ball, he has more control with it, and has given him instructions to go attacking at all cost.” Chamindu Wickramasinghe, Yasiru Rodrigo and Vinuja Ranpul are the three main pacemen of the side .

Sri Lankan spin department comprises skipper Dunith Wellalage the key leg Spinner and three other off spinners Trevin Mathew, Shevon Daniel and Sadisha Rajapaksa add more strength to the side .The deputy skipper Raveen de Silva is also a useful leg spinner with Wanuja Sahan Kumara .Mathew already proved his ability while taking 4 for 14 in their Asia Cup semi final against Pakistan .

“We have done well in the past four months. We’ve lost only 4 matches (3 losses and 1 no result) in all our assignments during that period.”

Being a former Sri Lankan top order batter himself, Avishka Gunawardena reckons the conditions in Guyana are much similar to Sri Lanka. , He thinks the conditions will suit this Sri Lanka U19 team’s style of play and this is an advantage.

Gunawardena also said the inconsistency in the batting and that they are working on that with the batters. “We have told that at least one among the top five batters should bat till the 40th over. They do that on one game but fail in the other. So we need to work on that consistency.

The head coach also spoke about his captain Dunith Wellalage.“The captain, helps us to keep the team together and has proven himself as a very good leader. He is very positive. Even in the Asia Cup semi-finals, after looking at the green surface for the game, he and the boys readily agreed to bat first. That fearless attitude at this young age is very commendable of him and the team.” praised Gunawardena