SI Cricket Talks
SI Sports Talks
Round TwoDavid vs Goliath
by Shazeen Ifamy
Intro:
Last November, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan played a three match One Day International (ODI) series that ended in a draw! Now, six months after they go again in another three match ODI series for round two! However, a lot has changed particularly for Sri Lanka since the two last met six months ago. With that said, shall we take a look at what the series has to offer? We shall!
To begin with, the last series between these two teams was part of the ICC ODI Super League which this is not, hence this series is rather a preparation series for the ODI World Cup later this year. However, for Sri Lanka this series isn’t a preparation series for the World Cup as for them it is a series to finalize their squad for the World Cup qualifiers as they haven’t qualified for the World Cup unlike Afghanistan, who have qualified and will use this series perhaps to experiment or to finalize their squad.
Batting:
Sri Lanka’s weakest link is their batting as they have failed to bat the full quota of 50 overs given in an ODI match consistently and even when they have batted the full 50 overs, they have failed to score a competitive total. As a result, Sri Lanka has strengthened their batting for this series especially the top order, its weakest link within its weakest link by recalling back senior batsmen such as Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews. While, Afghanistan, on the other hand, have a much better and settled batting unit.
Bowling:
Afghanistan has always had a solid bowling unit that has been its strength ever since hence they will look to use its strength with the likes of Rashid Khan and co. to dominate the fragile batting unit of Sri Lanka. Differently, for Sri Lanka, their bowling has been its strength recently but yet it has cost Sri Lanka defeats by either failing to restrict oppositions under a getable total or by failing to defend good totals. Additionally, Sri Lanka has been ratted early as their key but struggling spinner in ODI, Wanindu Hasaranga is injured and it isn’t clear whether he’ll play the series opener or not.
Outro:
So, there you have it! A brief preview of the series. Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, each respectively go into this series with different agendas. As a result, we can expect an interesting series as this series isn’t Athens (Sri Lanka) vs Sparta (Afghanistan) anymore as it is now David vs Goliath with Afghanistan being Goliath! So, how will this series go? So, Can Sri Lanka’s batting deliver? And who will win it? We’ll just have to wait and find out! We’ll just have to wait and find out!
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