Excuses wearing thin for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka wicketkeeper and senior batsman Dinesh Chandimal has called on the team to put their hands up and take responsibility for performances.

That the names Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene still come up when talking about the current Sri Lankan team is telling.

The national side have engaged in a fruitless game of selection roulette and while they have unearthed some talent the team continues to put in sub-par performances particularly with the bat and in the field.

The latest in a string of poor ODI performances saw them thumped by Bangladesh in the opening match of their fifty over series.

Chandimal says it’s time for players to step up: “You can’t say every time that this is our transition period.

“We need to put our hands up and come up with results. All players should take responsibility for the opportunities they get. The players are all working hard, and hopefully we’ll be able to see the results soon.”

Chandimal isolated poor fielding as one of the main problems adding: “If we had restricted them for 280 we could have done something with the bat, but we were sloppy in the field.

“We do lot of fielding training, but there’s pressure when we come into the game. There are several young players and there could be mistakes. But we are doing our training well and we are looking forward to sharpen up our fielding for the next two games.”

Sri Lanka have been criticized for putting Bangladesh in to bat and conceding 324 a total that if eclipsed would have set a new record for most runs chased in Sri Lanka.

Chandimal feels their was no problem with that decision and had they chosen to bat and lost people would be slamming them for that as well.

He went on: “Had we batted first after winning the toss and things backfired, that could have been also wrong.

“It was a team decision to bat second. We saw that there was dew there over last two days and we wanted to make most of it. But the dew didn’t come into play today, and things didn’t go our way.”

Chandimal doesn’t feel it is embarrassing to lose to the Tigers, who are an experienced and improving outfit.

He added: “When I first came into the side, we beat them easily.

“But if you take the new Bangladesh, they have seven to eight players who have been playing international cricket, and since that group has been playing together, they have a lot of experience.”

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