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Rex Clementine in Bangalore

Delhi is not the most favourite city for many tourists. There’s polluted air and ‘Delhi belly’ if you are an Australian or Englishman and a cricket pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla where the home team dominates. India have been so dominant in the capital city that in 30 years they had played 11 Test matches and won all but one. This was the background when Sri Lanka walked in for a Test match there in 2017. There was little hope for them in surviving in Delhi, especially given what had happened in the previous Test match in Nagpur which Sri Lanka lost by an innings and 239 runs, their worst in the history.

The selection panel headed by Graham Labrooy decided to hand Test debut to Roshen Silva. Guess who he was replacing in the side, Lahiru Thirimanne.

India posted 536 for seven declared with Virat Kohli scoring a double hundred. Sri Lanka were done and dusted having been reduced to 35 for four heading into the final day. Then the debutant came up with a stunner. In a three hour vigil, Roshen posted an unbeaten 74 and his defenses were impregnable. He was too good. On a final day wicket, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had plenty going for them but Roshen was solid. Sri Lanka overcame the Delhi ordeal. A new star was born.

If the current selectors had done their homework on which batters had excelled in Sri Lanka’s last tour to India, Roshen should have been an automatic choice. Plays spin well, good temperament, smart cricket brain and total commitment for the game. But he has one big disadvantage. He doesn’t have any godfathers in cricket.

Instead, players’ suspensions were shortened and rushed back to Test cricket without letting them earn their places. The selectors are treating Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella like Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. Mendis has a Test average of 34 after 48 Tests while Dickwella averages 32 in 47 Tests with no hundreds!

Roshen has had a decent Test career. A month after the Delhi Test, in his second Test, he made a hundred. In his third Test match he posted twin fifties, all away from home. That year, in 2018, he made two more half-centuries against touring England side. But after that he had been forgotten. Anyone who averages 35 in Test cricket in his first year, should have played lot more. Especially when your team is not covering themselves in glory. But Roshen has been doomed to domestic cricket where he keeps producing big runs and centuries.

Sri Lanka’s First Class season is on at the moment and Roshen’s unbeaten 174 for Colombo is the highest individual score. You can be pretty certain that the selectors are not aware of the stats. If they’re aware of numbers, tell us how Lahiru Thirimanne is part of the side despite a Test average of 26 after 44 games!

More players like Roshen suffer silently. This madness needs to end. The selectors need to do their homework or step down and let some other capable men do the job.

The Cricket Advisory Committee fought tooth and nail to get the current selection committee on board. The name of Marvan Atapattu was floated to take up as Chairman of Selectors last year, but they were content to give it to one of their buddies. And the results have been horrendous. What Sri Lanka put up in India was a pathetic show. They could have done much better with bit of planning.