Is Sri Lankan cricket on the way down?

[PennOne]

There is no star player and if there was they are too old. Angelo Matthews is doing ok and Dilshan is on the edge of his career, they are losing matches and not the force they were just 3-4 years ago. I think they are in a worse position than pakistan is at the moment in terms of cricketers not coming out of pure quality

 

[KamranDestiny]

Yes its so sad to see teams like SL, Pak, WI, even England to some extend, who have such a rich cricket history but are now fading away cuz of the lack of new talent coming up.

 

[Inswing]

We do have a players who can win matches but just need one decent captain with a brain and still we are force in test well on topic SL are new bangladesh

 

[Dman]

Looks like it after the retirement of Mahela and Sanga. Can't believe that the Sri Lankan team won the T20 WC last time as they're are struggling right now.

 

[Bakasura]

Yes its so sad to see teams like SL, Pak, WI, even England to some extend, who have such a rich cricket history but are now fading away cuz of the lack of new talent coming up.

England fading where? After India they have the best talent pool.

WI at least competetive in T20 & ODI

Pak is also reasonable level..

SL is going down very fast....

 

[Specialisttailender]

[MENTION=132270]SL_Fan[/MENTION].

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Centuries from Coetzer and Cross help Scotland beat Sri Lanka! <a href="https://t.co/OJkeffznXP">pic.twitter.com/OJkeffznXP</a></p>— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) <a href="https://twitter.com/CricketScotland/status/866360262227615748">May 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Executioner]

Emphatic win for Scotland. Lanka bowlers were destroyed

 

[troodon]

Mathews was once counted along the lines of Kohli, Williamson, Smith and Root.

He has done nothing since 2014. Turned into a bits and pieces player. A huge loss for Lanka.

 

[Rayyman]

Mathews was once counted along the lines of Kohli, Williamson, Smith and Root.

He has done nothing since 2014. Turned into a bits and pieces player. A huge loss for Lanka.

Your ignorance is absurd. He has been plagued with injuries.

 

[troodon]

Your ignorance is absurd. He has been plagued with injuries.

Injuries or not, he is nothing but a bits and pieces player. Not good enough to be their star player.

 

[Rayyman]

Injuries or not, he is nothing but a bits and pieces player. Not good enough to be their star player.

I think he is a star. Let's see at CT.

 

[Mamoon]

Injuries or not, he is nothing but a bits and pieces player. Not good enough to be their star player.

He is a high-class batsman, but a terrible captain. Needs to give up captaincy and bowling, and focus entirely his batting. At his best, he is a world class batsman in all formats.

 

[Slog]

Injuries or not, he is nothing but a bits and pieces player. Not good enough to be their star player.

He is word class for me. What a player!

 

[Slog]

Apni team ki fikar karlay OP

 

[Slog]

Mathews was once counted along the lines of Kohli, Williamson, Smith and Root.

He has done nothing since 2014. Turned into a bits and pieces player. A huge loss for Lanka.

Also he's led his team to a series win in England!

Come back when Kohli, Williamson or Smith do that.

Class is permanent

 

[Rayyman]

He is a high-class batsman, but a terrible captain. Needs to give up captaincy and bowling, and focus entirely his batting. At his best, he is a world class batsman in all formats.

His bowling is quite underrated. Wobbles around the new-ball and has good variations. Not a frontline guy, but fine as 5th or 6th.

 

[SL_Fan]

[MENTION=132270]SL_Fan[/MENTION].

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Centuries from Coetzer and Cross help Scotland beat Sri Lanka! <a href="https://t.co/OJkeffznXP">pic.twitter.com/OJkeffznXP</a></p>— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) <a href="https://twitter.com/CricketScotland/status/866360262227615748">May 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hardly a surprise tbh. Minnows gonna be minnows. Still going in with 3 front-liners as well I see. That might even go down to 2 once the tourney starts. That should be a fun watch.

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

What a start of practice for CT for SL

 

[Arsalan Pro]

Looks like one victory is assured for Pakistan now in CT.

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

Don't be so sure as there are shehzad,azhar type players

 

[Arsalan Pro]

They are on the same path as West Indies.

 

[Arsalan Pro]

Don't be so sure as there are shehzad,azhar type players

They surely are better than Scotland players or are they not?

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

They surely are better than Scotland players or are they not?

They are surely but Pak have good record of unpredictablity

 

[KhalidRafi]

What a rapid decline Sri Lankan cricket has gone through since the departure of Sangakkara and Jayawardena. A couple of years ago there were one of the most formidable forces in world cricket and now it's hard to even keep track of their current players. The lack of quality bowling talent coming up has also clearly been a major disappointment for them and their current attack seems toothless to me. Mathews, who was supposed to step up after the departure of Sanga and Jaya has spend the majority of his last few years injured and when he was playing his defensive and one-dimensional captaincy left much to be desired.

Even darker times ahead for them. Can easily see them slipping to 8 or 9 in ODIs in the very near future.

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

They are just going through a phase every team goes through for a while.

Once these same young players develop a bit more, you'll see SL to again hover from 4-6 mid table range where there are historically known to be.....

 

[Hayreddin]

1. Safraz Ahmed (2015 WC showed his potential)
2. Fakhar Zaman
3. Babar Azam
4. Haris Sohail
5. Mohammad Hafeez (maybe Fahim provided he is a better batting all-rounder)
6. Shoaib Malik
7. Imad Wasim
8. Mohammad Amir
9. Wahab Riaz
10. Hasan Ali
11. Junaid Khan (Muhammad Abbas if conditions are right)

I'm really not comfortable with Shehzad opening in any instance. Azhar is a possibility if he gets his strike-rate up. Either way, I still advocate for Sarfraz opening irrespective of who his other opening partner is. The only other hope is somehow Sharjeel is acquitted in the next 3 days and is shipped to England (which I'm not optimistic of that possibility).

 

[Hayreddin]

Wrong Forum Sorry....