Sri Lanka’s newly appointed skipper Dasun Shanaka has said the series against India will be an evenly contest as the visitors have several new faces without international experience under their belt. The series is scheduled to begin on July 18 in Colombo.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named several youngsters in the team after the first team will be busy in England gearing up for the upcoming Test series.
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“Both teams will start evenly because they (India) have got new players coming up. We all know that they have played IPL but still, they haven’t played international cricket, so both the teams have even chances?” said Shanaka on the eve of the first ODI against India here on Sunday.
Shanaka was named Sri Lanka’s skipper for the series on Friday when SLC announced the 24-member squad for the series against India. He is the 10th Sri Lankan captain in the last four years.
Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan will also be captaining the national side for the first time.
When asked if it’s an advantage for Sri Lanka as they revealed the squad so late, he nodded in yes.
“Yes, a slight advantage because they (India) haven’t seen these guys in international cricket, as well, so yes, I feel they have to prepare well for these newcomers as well?” said Shanaka.
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“On how challenging it is to lead Sri Lanka in current times, he said, “Yeah, it is always challenging, you know international cricket and the outside (off the field) problems, it all matters, but the end of the day you have to get to it and perform as a team, it is the main concern we all have, so I am sure that boys will look on to it.”
Shanaka mentioned it will be a good experience to play against a top team like India.
“The experience will be very good, you know playing against one of the top teams in the world, so it will be very good to play with India at this point because we can exactly measure the levels we are in, so it will be a good tournament for us,” he added.
This series was originally scheduled to begin on July 13 but the covid-19 outbreak in the Sri Lankan camp forced the board to reschedule the whole series.
