Home tour vs Zimbabwe a pick up ground for SL from Champions Trophy blunders

With the dust settled on the recent showpiece cricket heat wave that pitted the eight creams of nations in battle, giving way to the customary country versus country exchanges, Sri Lanka hosting Zimbabwe late June will be new ground in its team building process.  It will be the pick up passage from those costly ICC Champions Trophy fielding blunder let off that profited Pakistan to the title. That Sri Lanka on a cricket mainstream reshaping process from player retirement voids has been a belittling onus in high stakes grabs. In the consequent youth accentuation drive under expert coaching guidance that has been the necessary way forward; poor fielding will be the major concern for the Sri Lankan cricketing think tanks to address.  who  in tha from that bad on June 26.

Significantly, Zimbabwe, touring Sri Lanka in 15 years, arrive on June 26 for five one-day internationals and a Test match, will be a window from where Sri Lanka will need to get down to brass tacks in that quest for the right mix of team blending in both forms of the game. In that direction it would be interesting whether the selectors would be prudent to recognize some outstanding players who were unfortunate not to get the nod for the Champions Trophy such as batsman Sadeera Samarawickrema and offspinner Malinda Pushpakumara. Notably selections have been based prioritizing experience, but recognizing potential current form like Australia does blooding inform players should be a guiding factor; particularly in view of player failures in England.

Galle International Stadium will host its first limited-overs match in 17 years.

The Zimbabwe tour starts on June 30 with the first ODI at the Galle International Stadium, which will host its first limited-overs match in 17 years. The last ODI at Galle was in June 2000, when Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 37 runs.

The first two ODIs with Zimbabwe will be at Galle and the remaining three 50-over games will be at the refurbished Hambantota Stadium.

The only Test match will be at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo starting on July 14.

Schedule:

30 June – 1st ODI at Galle

2 July – 2nd ODI at Galle

6 July – 3rd ODI at Hambantota

8 July – 4th ODI at Hambantota

10 July – 5th ODI at Hambantota

14 July – 1st Test at Colombo

 By Srian Obeyesekere

 -The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Sri Lanka Cricket-