Afghanistan and Sri Lanka

It was an absolutely intense and a nail biting finish to the Asia Cup. Unfortunately for them, Bangladesh lost the final but not before giving a tough time to the Indian Team and taking the game to the last ball. India is the deserving winner as the team has showed why it is the best team in Asia through their dominant performances. They have been unbeaten in the whole tournament. Credit must go to Bangladesh though for the way they played in the final. It seemed like Bangladesh doesn’t present itself as a competition to the Indian team before the start of the match. They successfully proved everyone wrong though with their fighting spirit. So India has earned the Asian Supremacy yet again.

But the two teams that particularly grabbed my attention were Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. I am absolutely fascinated by the way Afghanistan played throughout this Asia Cup. And I am equally disappointed by Sri Lanka’s performance in this tournament.

Speaking about Afghanistan, they have played fabulous cricket over the course of this Asia Cup. They defeated Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Unfortunately due to lack of experience they could not finish off a couple of very close and intense matches. This wonderful performance is a result of the immense hard work that they have put in to improve their game. The last couple of years have been pretty amazing for them. It’s been really a joy watching them go from strength to strength in these couple of years. They have been the most successful associate nation and maximum credit for which goes to their spin trio. The trio that includes Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi can be rated as one of the best spin attack in world cricket at the moment as far as the ODIs are concerned. They have been playing franchise cricket all over the world as well. It has helped them get experience and earn respect of players all over the world. In comparison though, there batting is their weak side but they have improved significantly in that department of their game. As they have improved their batting as a team, they have been able to use a very successful formula in this Asia Cup. The formula is that ‘Bat First, Score around 250 or more and then defend with the experienced and lethal bowling attack.’ They will face problems when they will be chasing scores and for that their Batsman will need to step up. In this Asia Cup, Afghanistan scored approximately 250 in every match. If they do that consistently, they will be very tough to beat. Batsmen like Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, and Mohammad Nabi have taken up the responsibility and brought about a drastic change in their performance as a Batting Unit. They also have an explosive opener in Mohammad Shahzad. His fitness though is what I feel is a major concern. With the quality of spinners that they possess, a more agile and fitter man behind the wickets would be a better option. I feel the team management should tell Shahzad what needs to be done for the better interests of the team. One aspect Afghanistan should also look at is the need of 1-2 fast bowlers who can clock 140+ kmph on a regular basis. If these bases are covered, Afghanistan will be very tough to beat and then they can pose a threat to any of the top cricketing nations.

Other team that I said has grabbed my attention, for unwanted reasons though is Sri Lanka. It was a terrible tournament for them. They looked clueless in both their matches and had to face huge defeats at the hands of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Thus in a group where tough encounters were expected, Sri Lanka turned out to be absolute walkovers. They could not chase 250 odd scores in both their matches. They couldn’t even make it worth watching. It was really pathetic, the way they played in this tournament. This hasn’t been the tale of only Asia Cup. The past couple of years which were wonderful for Afghanistan have been equally horrendous for Sri Lanka as far as the ODIs are taken into consideration. Since the beginning of 2016, SL has played 10 bilateral ODI series having lost 8 of them. A series against Bangladesh was tied 2-2 while the only series that they won was a 2-match series against Ireland which is an associate nation. Out of the 8 series lost, 3 are whitewashes with the result being 5-0. These whitewashes came at the hands of India, South Africa and Pakistan. It doesn’t matter if they play at home or play away from home. They have lost 4 series each at home and away from home. Sri Lanka has faced quite a few issues in this period. Their experienced players like Upul Tharanga, Thisara Perrera, Kapugedara and Kusal Perrera have not performed the way they were expected to. The fact that they have been highly inconsistent has been hurting Sri Lanka for quite a long time. Their main players tend to get injured time to time which is not good for an already struggling team. They have had lots of captaincy issues as well. Their captains have got suspended on a regular basis due to reasons like slow over rate and ball tampering. In 2017, when India toured Sri Lanka they had to assign the captaincy job to 3 different players over a period of 5 ODIs. Recently in January 2018, Angelo Mathews was reappointed as captain of ODIs and T20s. He could lead the team for a single match before Injury kept him out of the game for almost 5-6 months. He returned to the team in July 2018. After the recently concluded Asia Cup though, he was removed from his post considering him responsible for the abysmal performance in the multi-nation tournament. Not only was he removed as the captain but also axed from the team which will be facing the visiting England side this month. I feel the decision to axe him is poor as he is an experienced campaigner and has still a lot to offer to the national side. Overall, Sri Lanka Cricket appears to be in tatters on the field as well as off the field. They need to figure some way out and they need to do it quickly. If they fail to do so, they might just be the weakest team entering the World Cup next year. It will be a shame for the 1996 champions if that happens.

Shreyas Deodhar