'Goal is is to climb to the top three in the rankings’ - Charith Asalanka lays out plan ahead of New Zealand series

Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka wants his team to be more consistent in white-ball cricket. The Lankan Lions won three back-to-back limited-over series at home and are now set to host New Zealand for a two-match T20I series against New Zealand, starting November 9. Ahead of that, the captain talked about his aspiration of being more consistent and climbing up the rankings ladder. Notably, Sri Lanka are currently eighth on the list and he plans to take the team to three.

The 27-year-old highlighted the success that Sri Lanka enjoyed in and before 2014 and wants his team to bring back the glory days. He spoke on the importance of being a consistent team and noted that if they manage to keep up with the game, they won’t be exposed in ICC tournaments in the future.

“We need to climb up the rankings, because that shows we've been consistently winning. Our goal is is to climb to the top three in the rankings. If we've consistently been winning, when we go to the ICC tournaments, we won't get exposed,” Asalanka was quoted as saying by ESPN.

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“We'd have played good teams and won like we used to do in 2014 and before, when we used to get to the semi-finals easily. We are hoping to come back to that level. It's important to play really well from tour to tour,” he added.

Hopefully, we can develop 15/16 really strong players: Asalanka

Due to injuries and the unavailability of certain players, Sri Lanka could try multiple new players in the past few months. Out of which, Janith Liyanage and Nishan Madushka stood out but yet, they failed to make it to the squad for the T20I series against New Zealand. Speaking on the same, Asalanka stated that the idea is to play the best XI but he is happy how others have chipped in from time to time.

“We're hoping to play our best XI all the time. That's how our bench strength improves as well, because they then know how well you have to play to get a spot in that XI. And the players in the XI also fight for their own places. I think we've improved that situation recently. Hopefully, we can develop 15/16 really strong players over the course of a year,” Asalanka said.