Selectors under fire after Rajapaksa blitz

The members of the national selection panel have come under heavy criticism after Bhanuka Rajapaksa made them eat humble pie with a blistering counterattack, this time with the bat. In Sunday’s IPL clash between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bombay, Rajapaksa threw caution to wind smashing 43 off 22 deliveries with two fours and four sixes.

The hard-hitting 30-year-old batsman was in great nick and chasing a target of 206, he helped his team get home with an over to spare in their first game of the campaign. Rajapaksa maintained a strike rate of 195 and RCB had little answers for his onslaught.

The former Royal College batsman walked into bat after Wanindu Hasaranga had claimed a wicket off the first ball dismissing Mayank Agarwal. Hasaranga is one of the most expensive buys in the IPL and Rajapaksa treated him with disdain smashing two sixes and a four.

“I knew how Hasaranga bowls. It was about knowing him and playing him for the last four to five years now. I bought my local knowledge and it worked,” Rajapaksa said at the post match presentation.

“What we thought was that we’d just have a free hit. Shikhar (Dhawan) wanted me to be aggressive although I had just come out to the middle. This win is a huge confidence booster. We watched this movie called ’14 Peaks’ and we have 14 games. Every game is a batter’s game. The credit should go to the bowlers to restrict them to 200,” Rajapaksa added.

Bought by Punjab Kings for a base price of US$ 65,000, Rajapaksa had been at loggerheads with the members of the national selection panel. He was overlooked for Sri Lanka’s recent T-20 series in Australia and India on the pretext that he had failed fitness tests having maintained high skinfold levels. He has not represented Sri Lanka in any form of international cricket since last year’s World Cup in UAE where he had a decent outing.

Rajapaksa at one point wanted to retire from international cricket as he had been cold shouldered by Sri Lanka’s selectors. Although he is available to represent the national team, the selectors are insisting that he needs to meet minimum fitness standards.

The selectors’ policies are hard to comprehend. The same panel at one point wanted him to play ODIs as well although his game is ideally suited for the T-20 format. Now they don’t want him for either of white ball formats.

Punjab Kings seem to have realized Rajapaksa’s value and apart from being given the prime slot of number three, they also got him to keep wickets, a thought that had not occurred to Sri Lanka’s selectors.

Shunning Rajapaksa from national duty has surprised many especially as the Sri Lankan team is not covering themselves in glory having lost all eight T-20 Internationals they have taken part this year.

The current selectors’ tenure ends this month and the need for fresh thinking has been very much felt in cricket circles.