This is the epitome of stupidity, why when a coach finally starts to fix the team and address its many issues do people wish to get rid of him. Mickey arthur should wholeheartedly stay on and continue as coach. Chopping and changing coaches will only lead to a period of uncertainty where the new coach will have to try and understand and come to grips with the team.

1)Dhanushka gunathilaka ( part time option possible)
2)Avishka Fernando ( if he passes the appropriate fitness tests he is more than suitable to replace kusal mendis. He will if given enough time turn into sri lankas version of rohit)
3)Kusal Janith Perera
4)Niroshan Dickwella(wk)
5)Angelo Mathews( if fit)
6)Dasun Shanaka (Captain)
7)Wanindu Hasaranga
8)Ramesh Mendis
9) Dushmantha Chameera
10) Lahiru Kumara( if we blood him before. Most sucessful teams( india, south africa, pakistan , australia, england, new zealand) possses 2 fast bowlers both capable of bowling 140 kph. The cricketing world has changed since our glory days, the ball swings less, pitches are less bowler friendly, bats bigger and boundaries smaller. We need pace to extract what little is left in these pitches, bowling 130kph will only lead to our ruin )/ Isuru Udana( inconsistent, hence why he was dropped by rcb . However he possesses the a variety of the best slower deliveries in sri lankan cricket, at least until dushmantha chameera improves, which looks ever so likely to happen soon )
11) Akila Dananjaya( slightly more innefective since his action change, the offbreak he bowls doesnt turn( slides on with the arm) and if he doesnt turn the ball on indian pitches he’ll be relatively useless/ Sandakan( still more or less ineffective, when his confidence is ruined by getting hit for runs in the first over. He tends to only bowl worse and worse, also players have started to play left wrist spin a lot better since the career of kuldeep yadav died out. And unfortunately he is a poor mans kuldeep. In addition to this the main issue with playing sandakan is he will be playing with hasaranga. By spinning the ball in the same direction he is easy to play for the other teams especially since his line and length is far from impeccable)/ Nuwan Pradeep( only if the pitch allows us to accommodate a third fast bowler)

Selecting players like Lakmal( 34 yo) will only be detrimental to sri lanka cricket in the long run . Lakmal only bowls 130-135kph, the white ball and indian conditions will limit swing thus limiting his effectiveness. This will lead him to be only cannon fodder towards the end of the innings.It is best if he gets chosen to play red ball cricket only. In addition to this it is for the best if after the forthcoming t20 world cup we drop these older players. If we do not blood our young players early we will be even more useless than we currently are.

Everyone who watches cricket knows that kusal Perera is more suited to the lower order role compared to dickwella. Dickwella doesn’t have the power to clear the boundaries towards the end hence why he relies on cute shots.There is no point playing a top order batsman down the order this is simply wasting a position. We also have better top order batsman so he has no place in this team anymore. All runs scored by kusal mendis have been in losing causes, he might start well but this always ends up biting the Sri Lankan team in the ass when we don’t have enough runs on the board. The Sr and average of avishka fernando are only this low because he’s just started his career recently (8 matches) and kusal mendis average is 21. 85 after 21 matches and they’ve been bolstered by a weak new Zealand team and other innings during losing causes. If you watched the practice match you would’ve seen that both of the players you mentioned above were very scratchy and hurt the Sri Lankan innings. Please do not push your agenda onto the Sri Lanka cricket, we all know that because the young players who have been blooded your favourite players positions are threatened. But do not fear soon sri lankan cricket will rise again and we not will not need such bs selections. We will soon select players based on reasoning not on bias statistics used to justify one’s bias.

SUSANTHA JAYAWARDENA,
Ah yes kusal mendis has played well in the the last 3 matches he has played in ( especially achieving his highest score of 79). Unfortunately he scored this highest score by wasting deliveries and not being rotate strike efficiently which ended up costing Sri Lanka the match as pubudu has suggested above. Frankly any oloamotayek can biff a six or four even though it has been lacking from the Sri Lankan team of late until now. Kusal mendis scored these runs against a weakened new Zealand bowling line up. If you look at the recent T20I over the last 12 months and kusal mendis’s record you can see that he has scored at a healthy average of 25.40 and at a strike rate 124.50. However these runs have all come in losing matches, there is no point of choosing players who are unable to win matches when they are being selected to do so especially when there is a new crop of players capable of playing the roles he plays and currently doing it better. Unfortunately kusal mendis is the pound land ( equivalent to the 100 rupee store) version of the fab four. Sixes build the score but strike rotation at all levels of cricket wins matches.

Why would you drop kusal Perera. Who is a better, more consistent and arguably more explosive batsman than K mendis and can keep better than him. Also if you notice the trend k Perera has been batting with more responsibility than mendis in recent matches. In addition to this k Perera has more shots to spinners which has been one his weaknesses of late unlike kusal mendis who’s shots tend to be either a flat bat pull or a slog sweep. Besides this mendis tends to score more boundaries and then eats up deliveries putting pressure on the batsman at the other end. Also he only performed against a second string new Zealand line up. The best option would be to drop dickwella and then include kusal mendis, or for a more aggressive option avishka fernando. Who despite his recent low scores has shown more white ball promise than kusal mendis.

The difference between the new young players and Kusal Mendis is that Mendis for the most part has only scored when the series has been decided which keeps him in the team until the next series . Thanks to him Sri Lanka has the slowest middle overs run rate out of all the teams at the world cup whereas the top order( which includes Karunaratne who scores slower than k Perera and Avishka Fernando) has scored at the fastest run rate of all teams in the world cup. Kusal M unlike any other number 4 in the world cannot rotate the strike which is the most important factor in choosing a number 4 for reference see Root, Kohli, Du Plessis etc. Also in modern day cricket the deciding factor in bringing matches close to finish is having someone who can hit the ball hard ie a power player. By him wasting deliveries during the middle overs the lower order must score at an even faster rate to make up for it. The best option is to slot out kusal mendis and allow him to work out his problems with strike rotation because the best players can score 5 runs an over without taking a risk or putting unnecessary pressure on the other batsmen. Dhananjaya De Silva is a different case because he has improved his bowling and his batting has for the most part been up to par for the position he’s been batting at. The ideal team for Sri Lanka after the world cup is depending on conditions:
1)Karunaratne/Gunathilaka ( spin/batsman)
2) Kusal Perera (wk)
3)Avishka Fernando
4)Oshado Fernando
5)Aesela Gunaratne( medium/ batsman who can score at a reasonable pace and can hit the ball far, only if in form * see domestic form)
6)Mathews
7)Dasun Shanaka( medium and power hitter)
8)Dhananjaya De Silva( can bat well at number four and bowl his full quota)
9)Akila Dhananjaya( better than our current actual spinners even with remodeled action)/ Tharindu Kaushal
10)Asitha Fernando( can swing the ball) / Vishwa Fernando( for the left arm angle which is extremely important for our very similar attack)
11) Lahiru Kumara ( for the extra pace which is needed for a varied pace attack to extract more from unfriendly pitches, in addition to our aging bowling attack its best to try youngsters for the next few years before the next World Cup). Depending on conditions it’s is best to add an extra bowler at the expense of Gunaratne. In addition to this we should look at India, England and South Africa’s example of using wrist spinners, Akila Dananjaya doesn’t turn his off break, leg break and his googly mostly skids on which can allow batsmen to play across the line without much fear, he only turns the ball when the pitch is undoubtedly in favour of spinners. It is best to reintroduce Tharindu Kaushal due to the fact that he can actually turn the ball even on flat pitches. He is undoubtedly the most talented spinner in Lanka also because most of the domestic pitches are turners this has led to left arm inferior versions of jadeja and off spinners who don’t spin the ball but bowl quickly and let the pitch do the rest dominate the domestic scene. In order to adapt to modern cricket times we must develop fair pitches in Sri Lanka to increase the number of wrist spinners and improve our current crop of fast bowlers ability to bowl on flat pitches. This is the only way to compete in the 2023 world cup which will mostly likely be a mixture of flat or some turn and seam pitches.