T20 World Cup 2021: That No. 3 Position Has Been An Achilles Heel For Us – Sri Lanka Coach Mickey Arthur

The head coach of the Sri Lanka national cricket team Mickey Arthur has said that the No. 3 batting position has been the weakness of the team after the suspension of three players — Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, and Niroshan Dickwella. Notably, the three players were banned from cricket for one year for a bio-bubble breach during the Sri Lanka tour of England.

Arthur believes that if Sri Lanka somehow manages to solve the number 3 batting position problem then they will perform much better in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.

“That No. 3 position has been an Achilles heel for us ever since we lost Danushka, Kusal Mendis, and Niroshan Dickwella (to suspension). We’ve battled to find the right balance in our top five. I’m comfortable we’ve got that balance. If we can just get that No. 3 position shelved down, we’ll be good,” said Arthur on Tuesday evening.

Sri Lanka defeated Namibia in the Round 1 Qualifier game of T20 World Cup 2021 by 7 wickets and they will next lock horns with Ireland on Wednesday.

Dinesh Chandimal Is A Very, Very Good Player – Mickey Arthur

The Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur showered praise on Dinesh Chandimal and said he is expecting a good performance from the batsman. Notably, Chandimal didn’t look good in the match against Namibia as he managed to score only five runs.

“Dinesh Chandimal has it at the moment. Hopefully, he gives us a performance at some stage. We’ve got young Charith Asalanka, who I think is another young player that’s going to play a lot for Sri Lanka, just waiting in the wings. I’m just waiting for someone to grab that position and make it their own,” added the South African.

“Chandi is a very, very good player, and contrary to a lot of the stuff I’m reading about him, he is a fine, fine batsman. He’s just short of a little confidence at the moment, but I’m comfortable that he will regain that. When he does — he played an innings in the practice game before we came over here. We had three practice games in our camp. He faced a really good attack. Dushmantha Chameera wasn’t there, but he had Binura, he had Chamika, he had Akila and Maheesh bowling against him, and he got 84 out of 48 balls and really played very, very well.”

Mickey Arthur further added that Dinesh Chandimal just needs some extra confidence and he is just one inning away from showing his true potential. Sri Lanka Coach elaborated:

“He batted superbly. He hit proper cricket shots, and he hit them well, he hit them hard. He cleared the boundary straight a lot of times. So if we can recreate that confidence for him coming into World Cup games, we feel we’ve got a win. We’ll give Chandi another run without a doubt. I’m comfortable that Chandi is one inning away from showing us potentially what he can do,”

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