Online Reporter
VISHEN Halambage, the 20-year-old batter, has earned a maiden national call-up as Sri Lanka named their T20I squad for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe.
Halambage is among five changes to the squad that faced Bangladesh last month and one of three new batters, with Nuwanidu Fernando and Kamil Mishara, also drafted in.
Leg spin-bowling all-rounder Dushan Hemantha and seamer Dushmantha Chameera have also been included.
Making way are Avishka Fernando, Dinesh Chandimal, Jeffrey Vandersay, Eshan Malinga and the injured Wanindu Hasaranga.
All three of Halambage, Nuwanidu and Mishara had impressed at the recent SLC T20 League, a three-team invitational tournament designed to help the selectors finalise squads ahead of the Asia Cup and this Zimbabwe tour.
The three picks inform how the selectors are looking to shape the T20I team more in line with modern, intent-driven batting.
Both Halambage and Mishara struck a tournament-high six sixes at the domestic T20 tournament.
The others to reach that total were Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, while only Niroshan Dickwella (20) managed to better Mishara’s total boundary count of 19.
Mishara’s strike rate of 172.72 was impressive too, second as it was only to Nissanka’s 190.24, with Halambage’s 140.32 not far behind.
Nuwanidu struck at a more modest 124, but his 155 runs across four innings were the highest in the tournament, as was his average of 77.50 – courtesy two unbeaten knocks.
With Sri Lanka’s No. 4 slot up for grabs following the exclusions of both Avishka and Chandimal, Nuwanidu has been earmarked as a potential long-term replacement, a claim aided by his stellar recent performances across formats domestically and with the Sri Lanka A team.
One player who might count himself unfortunate to have missed out is Dickwella, whose 134 runs came at a rate of 161.44 and included two fifties. But with those performances coming at the top of the order, where Nissanka and Kusal Mendis have locked down their positions, and
the selectors likely looking to pick for the future, it seems a pathway for the now 32-year-old seems limited.
On the bowling front, Hemantha’s inclusion as Hasaranga’s replacement ahead of the likes of Vijayakanth Viyaskanth and Vandersay seems to have come down to the former having a more rounded skillset.
Viyaskanth picked up five wickets in the tournament as compared to Hemantha’s four, while Vandersay was not even invited to play – signalling early that the selectors perhaps didn’t see a future for him in T20Is.
While Viyaskanth was the more impressive legspinner across the tournament, Hemantha is a more accomplished fielder, while he is also capable of clearing the boundary with the bat- two facets to his game that are likely to have swayed the selectors in his favour.
Sri Lanka squad for Zimbabwe T20I series
Charith Asalanka (capt), Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera, Nuwanidu Fernando, Kamindu Mendis, Kamil Mishara, Vishen Halambage, Dasun Shanaka, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushan Hemantha, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwan Thushara, Dushmantha Chameera, Binura Fernando. -ESPNCricinfo
