It is very difficult to pick a balanced squad with so many injuries: Sanath Jayasuriya

Sri Lanka’s chief selector and legendary cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya has been left with a difficult job of selecting the Sri Lankan squad for the upcoming home series against Australia which begins on July 26.

Most of the prominent names are unavailable for selection and that is what is making the procedure difficult, according to Jayasuriya.  The problem is in the fast bowling department especially. Dhammika Prasad, Dushmantha Chameera and Suranga Lakmal are unavailable due to their injuries while Shaminda Eranga’s action will miss out after being called out for his action.

Talking to espncricinfo.com, Jayasuriya said, “It is very difficult times as a selector to pick a balanced squad with so many injuries. It’s a bit tough but we will try and pick the best possible team. I hope the players picked also know what is expected of them and that they will do their best.”

“Whoever is fit and whoever is doing well in the Sri Lanka A team, we’ll have to give them the opportunity. It is the feeding place for the senior side. If we feel there is somebody who is very good in the Sri Lanka A, emerging or Under-19 squads, we will not hesitate to pick them,” he added.

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He also mentioned a few potential options. “I am really happy the way some of the Sri Lanka A players have been performing in England. Fast bowlers Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando, batsmen Dhananjaya de Silva and Roshen Silva are quite a few players. When we play in Sri Lanka we have a better chance of performing than when you are overseas. I am confident they can do well. But it’s a lot of hard work to come out and show their character.”

However, despite the injury concerns, Sri Lanka have an fairly good enough batting line-up.

“Our main concern is the bowling but this is also a good time for a youngster to put his hand up and perform and show his character,” he said. “The batting line-up is a fairly good one and stable. If you see the way they progressed in the Tests the batting was really good. It’s the one key department we can think that we are on the right direction.

“With players like Kusal Mendis, Kaushal Silva, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews, the batting line-up did really well. Some of the innings of 20s and 30s, I would like to see them go and get a big 100 or 200.

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“The unfortunate thing about the Test series in England was that we had a very good bowling line-up but we started getting injuries from the first Test onwards and before long our main three fast bowlers – Prasad, Chameera and Eranga – were out of the scene. We were basically left with only another two fast bowlers Pradeep and Lakmal to run through the rest of the games. If not for those injures we would have done really well. But injuries are part and parcel of cricket and you have to face them.”