Sri Lankas’ 30 man squad for the 2020 whatsitsname

The powers that be had put together a 25-man squad.

Then they expanded it to 30 to include players that should have been in the first 25 to begin with.

So now we have a squad of 30 players,  a few who should be there. A few who are iffy and a couple who will tell their friends it was an honour to have even made it that far.

That’s bull shit. Its pretty easy to make the 30 man squad. Heaven forbid selection based entirely on performance. No, we have a tried and tested method of picking the ‘seniors’ , ‘the favorites’ and ‘dudes with pull’.

You know who you are.

The fact that the squad of 25 was selected before the domestic interprov 2020 tournament is pretty retarded in itself. Or maybe the selectors just forgot it was on. Either way they could have saved themselves and the players a whole lot of trouble.

The 30 man squad reads

Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan (vice-capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Chaminda Vaas, Ajantha Mendis, Kaushal Weeraratne, Upul Tharanga, Isuru Udana, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Chintaka Jayasinghe, Nuwan Zoysa, Gihan Rupasinghe, Thilina Kandamby, Malinga Bandara, Dilhara Fernando, Indika de Saram, Thisara Perera, Gayan Wijekoon, Milinda Siriwardene, Lahiru Thirimanne

Skimming that to make 15 is going to be tough.

The squad is split 5050, in terms of seniors and new comers. Guys like Kumar, Murali, Sanath, Dilshan, Mahela, Kulesakara, Vass and Mendis are shoe-ins. The rest is not so clear cut.

Lasith Malinga should definitely be in the squad, SL have missed his fiery passion and the different dimension is brings to our bowling.

Maharoof will also earn his spot – mainly though his big hitting and his decent outing in IPL v.1

That leaves another 5 spots that are vacant. Indika de Seram, who was one of the main reasons the 25 was expanded to 30 would be extremely unlucky not to get a place in the 15 after his top scoring efforts in the interprovs.

If we recap the team so far.

Batsmen– The King, Mahela, Sanath, Dilshan, De Seram

Bowlers – Vass, Murali, Mendis, Kulesekara, Malinga

All-rounders– Maharoof.

With 4 spots left, adding a 3 more batsmen and an all rounder would be ideal.

But it would be pretty hard to leave out interprov star Isuru Udana, we spoke about him sometime ago at theflyslip, the next ‘Vass’ is living up to the billing. MoM & MOTS in the interprov 2020 finals and threatening to break into the first xi. The only thing that could put off the selectors is his inexperience. But how will be learn if he doesnt play, its a vicious cycle.

In terms of batsmen Kapugedara and young stud Angelo Matthews should get the nod. Mattews has been in bullish form all season, plus his ability to turn the arm over will come in handy.

For the additional batsmen there are plenty of choices. Chamara Silva is one. Remember him? swatting the aussies a couple of years ago. He plays only one way and that way suits 2020. His runs in the interprovs will count in his favor and is also in the ‘players we like’ column with the selectors.

So the 15 I’d send to the 20benty world cup thing would be

Batsmen– Kumar, Sanath, Mahela, Dilshan, Kapugedara, Silva, De Seram

Bowlers– Vass, Mendis, Murali, Malinga, Kulesekara,Udana

All-rounders– Maharoof, Matthews

It remains to be seen whether the selectors will think with their head or their arses.

4 Comments

  1. Ottayan said:

    “It remains to be seen whether the selectors will think with their head or their arses”. – Undoubtedly with their nether regions.:)

    April 10, 2009
    Reply
  2. indophile said:

    ‘dudes with pull’ I am really really interested in their names. Going by the last T20 game it should be Fernando but he is not that bad well most of the time but I can’t think of anybody else.

    April 14, 2009
    Reply
  3. sam said:

    m relishin the prospect of watchin Tendulkar open with Jaya in IPL for MI 🙂

    April 15, 2009
    Reply
  4. damiths said:

    Ottayan> Undoubtedly

    Indophile> Mubarak has the ultimate pull indo.

    Sam> So am I Sam, even though I am not such a big fan of the IPL you cant ignore those two in tandem.

    April 16, 2009
    Reply

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