New Delhi, Nov 26 Just two months before co-hosting the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka may undergo a dramatic captaincy change. Chief selector Upul Tharanga has confirmed that the panel is actively looking at alternatives to captain Charith Asalanka, who is currently under pressure.
Tharanga highlighted that "no decision" had been taken, despite Asalanka's underwhelming performance and his early withdrawal from the ongoing tri-series in Pakistan, which has sparked rumours regarding his future.
“We have to weigh our best options after this series,” Tharanga told ESPNcricinfo when asked if Sri Lanka were contemplating a switch in leadership. “With a World Cup so close we can't make a lot of big changes. The selectors, after talking to the coach, will have to make a decision on what's best for the team.”
Tharanga stated that Asalanka's return from Pakistan last week was not the beginning of discussions about a new captain. He disclosed that the selection of Dasun Shanaka, the former white-ball captain of Sri Lanka, as the tour's vice captain was intentional. "That was to give us another option."
Rumours that Asalanka's mid-series flight back to Colombo was disciplinary spread quickly, especially in light of reports that some players felt uneasy staying in Pakistan after a suicide bombing in Islamabad.
However, Tharanga rejected these theories, maintaining that it was only a medical problem. “Still Charith is our captain,” he said. “It’s because of an illness to Charith that we appointed Dasun as our stand-in captain. Charith is still the captain in our plans. We haven't made a decision to change that. We've planned all along for Charith to captain this World Cup. We'll see what happens. We haven't made a decision about that yet.”
Explaining the situation further, Tharanga stressed that Asalanka’s condition made it impossible for the team to keep waiting for a recovery. “He had a viral fever, and he had body aches,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “The physio told us that it's hard for him to predict when Charith would get better, and that's why we had to make that decision.”
He also pointed to the team’s broader issues in the middle order. “We've also had a problem in the middle order, and we've not been consistent there. If he couldn’t play, we needed to have someone else there. That’s why we brought Charith to Sri Lanka.”
Asalanka has only scored 156 runs in 12 innings this year at a strike rate of 122. His T20I stats have remained mediocre, with a strike rate of 126 over 68 innings. Sri Lanka has won 11 and lost 14 games under his direction. However, Tharanga emphasised that their World Cup strategy still heavily relies on the batter.
“Charith is a very talented cricketer, with a lot of experience. I'm sure he'll be an important cricketer for Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup,” he said. “We've seen what he can do in the middle order, where sometimes he’s won games by himself. He’s in our World Cup plans.”
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