The 17 Member Sri Lanka U19 Squad which took part in the U19 Asia Cup held in UAE left for West Indies straight from Dubai yesterday (2) to take part in the ICC under 19 Men’s Cricket World Cup. Sri Lankan youth side finished runners up at the Asia Cup losing to India at the final in a one sided affair.
Sri Lankan team led by Dunith Wellalage had good confidence in their batting line up but the way they batted at the semi final against Pakistan and final against India were below expectations. This is a good eye opener for Sri Lanka youth team before the world cup which will commence on January 14.
Their batting was highly successful against Kuwait and Nepal during the Asia Cup tournament scoring over 300 runs in both matches but they were struggling against strong Pakistan and India sides against pacemen who had good spells.
Traveen Mathew was the match winner of the semi finals with a four-wicket haul as an off spinner but batting first for Sri Lanka never got going and their poor shot selection was highly criticised by the cricket experts.
At the semi final and final Dunith Wellalage won the toss and chose to bat first. However, losing the toss proved to be a blessing in disguise for India as Sri Lanka had to call all the shots which on this occasion proved disastrous Sri Lanka have not won the Under 19 Asia Cup but the Wellalage’ s side looked quite capable in doing so that after they beat tournament favourites Pakistan in the semi finals. However, by misreading the Dubai wicket they ended up on the losing side and had to be satisfied with the runner up for the fifth time and especially they lost to India at the previous four finals.
The same squad of 17 players have been named for the world cup and it is going to be a big challenge once again as they have to adjust to West Indies conditions as soon as possible.
Sri Lanka team will play in the Group ‘D’ of the competition, lined up along with Australia, West Indies, and Scotland. The first game for Sri Lanka U19 will be against Scotland U19, which will be played on January 14 at the Everest Cricket Club Ground, Georgetown.
The team will later take on Australia U19 (Jan 17) and host West Indies U19s (Jan 21) during the preliminary round of the competition This is going to be the 14th edition of the under 19 world cup. Going back to the previous 13th editions West Indies host this tournament for the first time. Australia won three titles while India won the highest number of four times, Pakistan won twice. England, South Africa, West Indies Bangladesh won
one time each. Sri Lanka was able to reach the final only once in 2000 at SSC grounds losing to India.
The big challenge for Sri Lanka once again at this youth world cup and they have to rectify their mistakes in the Asia Cup tournament.
Sri Lanka under 19 Squad for world cup:
Dunith Wellalage (Captain), Shevon Daniel, Anjala Bandara, Pawan Pathiraja Sadisha Rajapaksa, Wanuja Sahan Kumara, Raveen De Silva (Vice-Captain) Ranuda Somarathne, Malsha Tharupathi, Traveen Mathew, Yasiru Rodrigo, Matheesha Pathirana, Chamidu Wickramasinghe, Vinuja Ranpul, Sakuna
Liyanage, Abhishek Liyanaarachchi, Sadeesh Jayawardena Avishka Gunawardena (Head coach), Chamila Gamage (fast bowling coach), Upul Chandana ( fielding coach), Sachith Pathirana (spin coach), Mahinda Halangoda (Manager).