Have To Be Fearless To Win Matches; You Can't Be Fearful About Losing: Kusal Perera

Sri Lanka‘s newly-appointed ODI captain Kusal Perera has a massive task on his hand; to revive the national team’s fortunes amid their ongoing lean period across formats. Sri Lanka cricket gave Kusal Perera the leadership duties ahead of their three-match ODI series against Bangladesh, dropping former skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and introducing some new faces. Kusal Perera has stressed the need to play fearlessly.

By naming Kusal Perera as their new captain and Kusal Mendis as deputy, the selectors omitted Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, and Dinesh Chandimal from the 18-man squad. The Island nation lost their previous ODI series in the West Indies to the Caribbeans comprehensively as they beat them 3-0. Their leg against Bangladesh begins on the 23rd of May, with Dhaka set to host all the fixtures and the games are part of the ODI Super League.

Kusal Perera underlined that players have to be fearless and cannot perform to their fullest by being fearful of their spots. The southpaw announced that his message to the players would be to give their everything and inject fearlessness even in practice sessions, then the same would come in the match too. Perera wants to build a culture where the players are high on confidence.

“We have to play fearless cricket to win matches. You can’t be fearful about losing. If you’re worried about your place, you aren’t going to give 100 per cent. What I’m going to tell the players is to go and give it everything. If we play fearlessly even when we are practicing, then you will be able to play the same way in a match. That’s what I’ve told the team. If we are fearful, we will fall even further. I’m trying to build a culture where the players have a lot of confidence,” Perera told ESPN Cricinfo.

I really like to play fearless cricket personally: Kusal Perera

Kusal Perera highlighted he himself prefers playing fearless cricket and has attained success through that. Hence, he wants his players to do the same. The 30-year old does not promise success through that method, but promises that things would take a positive turn.

“I really like to play fearless cricket personally, and that’s where my success has been. Whenever I’ve played with fear, it hasn’t worked for me. I want everyone else to play like that. You can’t guarantee that you will go right playing this way, but the chances of things going well are greater,” he added.

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