Sri Lanka arrive in Australia full of Asia Cup confidence

Under Dasun Shanaka, they have become an increasingly accomplished side, nursing five straight wins and a genuine confidence that they can make proper inroads over the next month

Many people observed that it was wrong to judge England's pandemic coaches on their results through the modern game's most complicated period, so Chris Silverwood's success since taking charge of Sri Lanka has been a personal vindication as well as the consequence of a youthful team's growth.

They arrive in Australia with the momentum created by winning the Asia Cup last month and the additional boost of a couple of key players returning to fitness. Under Dasun Shanaka, they have become an increasingly accomplished side, nursing five straight wins and a genuine confidence that they can make proper inroads over the next month.

They won the Asia Cup without either Dushmantha Chameera or Lahiru Kumara, two of the quicker bowlers in the global game, both of whom enjoyed success on Australian pitches earlier this year, and the suggestions are that they are likely to be fit after decent spells out.

Bhanuka Rajapaksa played a match-winning hand in the final victory over Pakistan, while Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka have developed a solid opening partnership.

^{Sri Lanka's Asia Cup-winning team on an open-top bus tour in Colombo (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images)}

How Wanindu Hasaranga fares, though, will be fundamental to what happens over the course of the next month: the leg-spinner has enjoyed a terrific rise over the last two years and has emerged as part of the leg-spinning elite in the game's shortest format.

All good T20 sides have a quality wrist-spinner, and he is Sri Lanka's, with Maheesh Theekshana at the other end a wily, unorthodox finger-spinner.

The surfaces won't offer quite the same assistance as those in Dubai, where Hasaranga was the competition's most prolific spinner and Theekshana conceded his runs at an economy of just 6.75 per over, but nonetheless they will constitute eight crucial overs for teams to negotiate, with the Chameera-Kumara axis also to worry about.

THE BIG MATCH

Who: Sri Lanka v Namibia

Where: Geelong, Victoria

When: Sunday, October 16 (4pm local, 5am BST)

Prediction: Sri Lanka

In their absence, Pramod Madushan was a breakout star of the Asia Cup, picking up four wickets in the final on just his second international appearance at 28 years of age. Chamika Karunaratne, the bustling change seamer and a useful lower-order finisher, balances a team that is taking shape nicely.

No team has been in more T20 World Cup finals than Sri Lanka, even if they haven't reached the knockout phase since winning in 2014. But they are arguably in better shape now than at the start of any global tournament since, at a time when life back home – with an economic crisis besetting the nation – could scarcely be more different.

"The fact that everybody's behind us, the nation is behind us, and we're out there trying to bring a smile back to everybody's faces; for me, it's a positive," said Silverwood. "It's something we can use as energy, and something we have used as energy in the dressing room already."

^{Wanindu Hasaranga is a crucial player for Sri Lanka [AFP via Getty Images]}

Sri Lanka's women's team are riding a similar wave, beating Pakistan to earn themselves a place in the Asia Cup final against India on Saturday and performing a celebratory dance that has since gone viral. By the time the men take on Namibia on Sunday, that final will have taken place, with India firm favourites.

But Shanaka's charges will hold that expectation during the first round, with games against United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands to follow – their early entrance to this year's competition a legacy of their poor world ranking at the conclusion of the 2021 tournament.

A year on, they sit seventh on the same list, narrowly clear of West Indies and looking up at Pakistan one place above them on the ladder, with no reason to think they can't follow up their Asia Cup triumph with a strong showing in Australia.

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