We’ll give world champions Sri Lanka a good old rattle this week
THIS morning the whole squad will meet up for the first time since the disappointment of losing to the Netherlands and failing to make the ICC World Twenty20 proper. I have never been one for dwelling on the past and to be honest, I haven’t reflected too much on that defeat to the Dutch.
Of course, it was disappointing not to go through after putting ourselves in a great position but we just played a bad 55 minutes against Holland, made mistakes we don’t normally make and were punished for them.
And even though we missed out on playing them in Bangladesh, it is great to be able to welcome the recently-crowned T20 world champions to Dublin this week. It should make for a great occasion in Clontarf.
Sri Lanka proved in that tournament what they are all about and while they are resting a few of their senior stars (Lasith Malinga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Rangana Herath haven’t travelled) for these two games, they are still bringing a very strong side.
Dinesh Chandimal will be out to prove himself after being dropped during the T20, while Lahiru Thirimanne and Ajantha Mendis will provide the fireworks you are guaranteed with the Sri Lankans. And Angelo Mathews will not want to lose a game as captain of the world champions, given this will be the first time they played since breaking their final ‘hoodoo’.
But that is the scalp that presents itself to us. It’s another chance to measure ourselves against the very best.
We are getting closer to taking down one of the top teams in Dublin – anyone who was at Clontarf for the two Pakistan games last May know that. It was unfortunate then that we just ran out of time.
But the scalp will come, hopefully this week. As the Sri Lankans are still coming down off the high of winning the World Cup and have lost their coach Paul Farbrace to England, some may feel that we have a better opportunity in the first game.
I don’t subscribe to that theory.
We haven’t been together as a squad ourselves since the World Cup. Some of the lads have been off playing county cricket in England, others have been ticking over by playing club and interpros here. And, because we haven’t been together, we are going to need a couple of days to fine-tune our own game.
But, if all our bases are covered, we firmly believe we are a match for anyone and more than capable of beating any side, world champions or not.
This is the first time they have toured Ireland since 1979 and I have only met them twice during my international career. It was an experience to forget on both occasions. In the 2007 World Cup, I was gone for 0 and got six runs when we played them in 2009.
Sri Lanka have very few weaknesses but it would be nice to say that we got one over on the team that were sitting on top of the world.
And it is great to once again be drafted into the Caribbean Premier League with Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel this summer.
It’s another opportunity for me to play alongside the likes of Ross Taylor and Dwayne Bravo and improve my game even more.