Shanaka pleased to see national players fire ahead of SA series

Sri Lanka’s white-ball Captain Dasun Shanaka hopes that the national players will carry the same momentum into the limited overs series against South Africa after most of the key players showed excellent form during the SLC Invitational T20 League Cricket Tournament.

SLC Greys led by Shanaka emerged champions when they outplayed SLC Reds by 42 runs in the final encounter played under lights at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy on Tuesday.

Shanaka also stressed the importance of this tournament as Sri Lanka will be making a determined effort to regain the ICC T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October.

“This was a very important tournament for the national players to showcase their talent and potential and I believe they did exactly that throughout this event,” he stressed.

“I am happy that most of the batsmen and the bowlers showed excellent form throughout this tournament and I hope they will continue that same momentum during the series against South Africa.”

Sri Lanka will begin their preparations for the ICC T20 World Cup with a three-match One Day International series followed by a similar number of T20 Internationals against South Africa from September 2.

Shanaka also expressed his satisfaction of how some of the young players lived upto expectations after they were given a task to fulfil on the field.

“Each player in my team was given a role to perform in the beginning of the tournament and they were able to execute that game plan to the fullest,” he emphasised.