Sri Lanka leave for New Zealand without Nissanka

by Rex Clementine

A 17-member Sri Lankan Test squad left for New Zealand Sunday night for a six-week long multi format tour that includes two Tests, three ODIs and three T20 Internationals. There’s a lot at stake during the tour and much has been done to help the team get acclimatized to the conditions but the cold, wind and the moving ball will be quite a challenge to the Sri Lankans.

The tourists will arrive in south island of New Zealand and will be based there for ten days before the opening Test match at the Harley Oval in Christchurch. They’ll play a two day warm-up game against New Zealand XI at the same ground starting Saturday.

New Zealand is a county of two islands. The north island comprises some of its major cities such as Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton. The main city in south island is Christchurch and there are other prominent but smaller cities like Queenstown and Dunedin.

The announcement of the Test squad came via a SLC press release and there was no formal media briefing to explain the selections. Although the current selection panel has been highly praised by some they have worked with little transparency and avoided the press like the plague during their two-year tenure and have got away with too many blunders.

There was no explanation as to why opening batsman Pathum Nissanka was left out but it is learnt that the medical staff haven’t given him a clean bill of health after picking up a back injury in India last month.

Nissanka is easily the finest young talent to emerge in the last five years and has made such a huge impact in all three formats of the game. He may have pulled through for the second Test and anyway since he’s going to be part of the white ball setup, you wonder whether he’d better off in New Zealand acclimatizing to conditions than in Colombo.

Nissanka perhaps faulted by not playing the NSL four day tournament. But have you come across a cricketer with such an unblemished record since Kumar Sangakkara?

Surely, a selection panel that was willing to give the long rope to Danuska Gunathilaka allowing him more time to recover from an injury should have been more considerate about Nissanka.

Sadly, poor Nissanka doesn’t have any godfathers in cricket.

Top order batsman Nishan Madushka has got a maiden call up for the senior team after some big scores in recent times. A product of Moratu Vidyalaya, Madushka slammed a double hundred against England Lions in the first unofficial Test earlier this month in Galle and followed it up with another hundred in the second game.

A 23-year-old wicketkeeper batsman, Madushka averages over 60 in domestic cricket and has been hailed as one of the finest young batsmen in the country.

Uncapped fast bowler Milan Ratnayake is also part of the Test squad.

This is Sri Lanka’s first Test series in eight months. The tour itself is highly important for Sri Lanka. A 2-0 series win will put them on the brink of the finals of the World Test Championship while a 3-0 clean sweep in the ODIs will see them qualifying automatically for this year’s 50 over World Cup.