Dasun Shanaka did a tremendous job as Sri Lankan captain: Wasim Jaffer

Whenever a team wins a game, the credit goes to the player or the players who performed the finest. But the captain has an important, and the most crucial role to do behind his team’s victory. He is the one who comes up with the strategy, which the players go on to implement. Thus, a team’s victory is always a captain’s victory.

And some great instances of brilliant captaincy were witnessed during the Asia Cup 2022. There were a few who were praised for their captaincy, but the one who stood out of the lot was the Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka who led a comparatively inexperienced team into the finals of the continental tournament.

While speaking on BatBricks7 Presents Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker, Jaffer lavished praises for Shanaka as he said:

“Dasun Shanaka is the best captain in the Asia Cup as he took an inexperienced Sri Lankan side to the finals. As for Pakistan, they were the favorites this season because of the brand of cricket they had been playing and the big names that they had on their side. But for a team like Sri Lanka, some seamers had not played even a single T20 game, and Hasaranga was the only experienced one.”

I would surely give him a 10/10: Jaffer

Wasim Jaffer further stated that Shanaka’s captaincy was better than the rest of the teams' skippers at the tournament this year. He lauded his captaincy style and the strategies that he had put in place to take the team to its peak. After losing their campaign opener terribly against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka bounced back stronger and bagged four wins in a row before making it to the final.

“Shanaka did a tremendous job as the skipper. He tweaked the batting lineup and made Kusal Mendis open the innings, who was not seen playing at that role before. He kept Gunathilaka as the floater and took Rajapaksa a little down the order, which worked for them. I would rate Shanaka’s captaincy higher than others because after losing the first match terribly, the team made a brilliant comeback and Shanaka took this Sri Lankan side into the finals. I would surely give him a 10/10,” Jaffer added.