Aravinda de Silva expresses disagreement with Arjuna Ranatunga on his 'second-string' Indian team comment

The comments of Arjuna Ranatunga around the Indian team touring Sri Lanka to be a second-string side have not sat well with the fans and several experts. However, it seems now that the former Sri Lankan skipper is not going to find support from his own former teammates. Ex-Sri Lanka cricketer Aravinda de Silva, who was an integral part of the World Cup-winning squad in 1996 under Ranatunga, has disagreed with his former skipper on this front. 

A few days back, Ranatunga made a claim that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) shouldn’t have allowed the Indian tour to take place as they were sending a second-string side. He termed it as an insult to Sri Lankan cricket. However, since his comments came, many ex-players and experts have pointed out that this team is in no way a second-string unit, considering that it has white-ball specialists, who otherwise would be playing in ODIs and T20Is for India. 

It is worth noting that, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, and Kuldeep Yadav are all regulars in the Indian white-ball team for the past few years. The players who either play only red-ball cricket or first-choice Test squad members are in England, getting recharged before they play a five-match Test series, starting on August 4. 

I think this method is for the future: Aravinda de Silva on India’s rotation policy

De Silva, who is currently the Sri Lanka Cricket’s committee chairman, spoke about this during a press conference. He cited that the unprecedented times have made boards handle players in a different way and rotation policy is in place. He also said that the rotation policy is something that will be used more and more in the future. 

“India as you know has got an enormous amount of talent going around at the moment. There is no way you can call any side second string. If you look at the current way of handling players [due to the Covid-19 pandemic], there is a rotation policy taking place. There will come a stage that players will be rotated and even some officials because it [bio-secure bubble] is taking a toll. I think this method is for the future. It is not like a second-string or third-string team, it is the rotational policy,” De Silva said during a virtual group interaction.

The former legendary Sri Lankan batter, also praised India’s head coach for the tour, Rahul Dravid. He also hinted that Sri Lanka Cricket is trying to get Mahela Jayawardene to play a similar role that Dravid has been doing for India. “Dravid has instilled the knowledge and strategy in them. Similarly, we have been trying to convince Mahela Jayawardene to take up the role of SL U-19 coach but couldn’t find any success,” De Silva said.