Graham Ford hints at moving Dhananjaya de Silva up the order in Tests

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Dhananjaya de Silva Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka cricketer Dhananjaya de Silva celebrates making a century. (Photo by ISHARA S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images)

25-year old Sri Lankan batsman Dhananjaya de Silva is expected to be one of those batsmen in the squad who gets his long overdue promotion up the batting order. De Silva has been in terrific form in recent times with the bat becoming a rather impactful batsman down the order as far as the Lankans are concerned.

However, Sri Lankan coach Graham Ford believes that he needs to be one of those players batting higher up the order. He also went on to explain the pros of Dhanajaya batting lower down the order and also equated him to someone who was able to get the best out of the lower order as well.

“I think the selectors were quite keen for him to spend quite a bit of time in his apprenticeship phase of Test cricket batting down the order with a view to him eventually becoming a top-order player,” said Ford. “But with what we’ve got at the moment, in terms of requirements, it may mean that he has to go up the order earlier than initially planned.”

“The pros of Dhananjaya remaining down the order definitely are that he’s performed fantastically there, and when we have got ourselves into trouble he’s got us out of trouble,” Ford said. “Also he’s the last man of the group so he’s a calm man for pressure situations.

Ford went on to add, “But the balance of the side at the moment, when we play the extra seamer – we are one batter less. The danger of him batting down the order now is that he may run out of partners quicker than previously. That’s something to look at. He’s certainly showed that he’s well-equipped to handle batting up the order as well. It’s nice to know that we’ve got somebody that capable who can possibly slot in higher up the order.

Ford also said that the 25-year old had tremendous temperament. “On the temperament side – we saw when he came in at 20 for 5 (26 for 5) against Australia he played beautifully. On a number of occasions he’s been under big pressure and he’s handled it pretty well,” the coach added.

“We’ve also seen him handle the second new ball well on a number of occasions and we know he has played in the top order in domestic cricket,” Ford pointed out. “There are a lot of good qualities in the young man.”

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