SL vs NZ - Charith Asalanka - Sri Lanka's purpose is to climb to high three within the rankings

Coming off three restricted overs sequence wins in a row, males’s captain Charith Asalanka has severe aspirations for this staff: let’s be pretty much as good as Sri Lanka had been earlier than 2014.

That 2007-2014 aspect had arguably been Sri Lanka’s biggest ever outfit, attending to no fewer than 5 World Cup finals (three in T20Is and two in ODIs), earlier than lastly successful the 2014 T20 title.

The primary job is to climb into the highest three within the ICC rankings, Asalanka stated forward of the sequence in opposition to New Zealand. In T20Is, which the groups play first, Sri Lanka are at No. 8. In ODIs, they’re curiously a bit higher, regardless of not having earned qualification to subsequent 12 months’s Champions Trophy, and sit at No. 6. They should make progress on each fronts, stated Asalanka, who has been captain of each codecs since August this 12 months.

“We have to climb up the rankings, as a result of that reveals we have been persistently successful,” he stated. “Our purpose is is to climb to the highest three within the rankings. If we have persistently been successful, once we go to the ICC tournaments, we cannot get uncovered.

“We would have performed good groups and received, like we used to do in 2014 and earlier than, once we used to get to the semi-finals simply. We hope to come back again to that degree. It is essential to play rather well from tour to tour.”

Whereas Sri Lanka are on this section of rediscovering consistency, there isn’t a room to discipline any worse than a high XI, he stated. To date, Sri Lanka’s white-ball resurgence has come solely at house, on largely big-turning pitches. However they’ve via the course of the previous few months additionally fielded new gamers, who’ve carried out nearly instantly – Janith Liyanage, and Nishan Madushka particularly.

“We solely reently began successful a couple of matches in a row,” Asalanka stated. “It is the identical staff that performed. Till the bottom of our cricket improves a bit extra, we’re making an attempt to play the very best XI. However we do have an enormous plus level, which is that the gamers on the bench even have had an opportunity, and so they’ve carried out properly earlier than they’ve gone again to the bench.

“We’re hoping to play our greatest XI on a regular basis. That is how our bench power improves as properly, as a result of they then understand how properly it’s a must to play to get a spot in that XI. And the gamers within the XI additionally struggle for their very own locations. I believe we have improved that scenario lately. Hopefully we are able to develope 15/16 actually robust gamers over the course of a 12 months.”

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