Fear of failure and lack of confidence getting to Sri Lanka, feels Mahela Jayawardene

Like many Sri Lankans, former Sri Lanka great Mahela Jayawardene is immensely disappointed with the way things have panned out for the national team in the past year. The former skipper highlighted that the lack of confidence and fear of failure are responsible for their dismal run in international cricket.

Sri Lankan cricket in the doldrums

Sri Lanka has had a terrible run post the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Jayawardene himself. Injuries to Angelo Mathews in the best part of the last year haven’t helped their cause. They faced an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe at home and nearly lost their first Test against them before a miraculous rescue act by Asela Gunaratne and Niroshan Dickwella saved them from the blushes. In the Champions Trophy, after famously beating India, Sri Lanka failed to kick on and got eliminated in the first round which shocked many as they have always had a great record in major ICC tournaments.

Talking to Cricinfo, Jayawardene was concerned for Sri Lanka cricket and called on addressing the situation at the earliest. “I feel the team’s confidence is low. The fear of failure factor has come out. They don’t look confident; they don’t look hungry enough in the middle. They need to address that and find solutions very quickly”, he said in an interview with Cricinfo.

India are currently on a tour to the Island and are 1-0 up in the 5-match ODI series. They whitewashed the home side 3-0 as Sri Lanka never looked like challenging the No. 1 team in the world. Jayawardene pointed out that first innings batting and the inability to pick up 20 wickets let the team down.

“Talking about the whitewash against India, Jayawardene said the team failed in all departments. I am sure the guys would be very disappointed with their performance in the Test series. It was a great challenge for them to test themselves against the number one team. They didn’t handle certain situations well. First innings batting too, let them down when there was no demon in the wickets. They also never looked like getting 20 wickets,” said the former Sri Lankan captain.

‘Kohli leads from the front’

India has had a great run in Test cricket in the last 2 years. Skipper Virat Kohli has led them well, a fact which was acknowledged by Jayawardene. He, however, mentioned that India have played mostly in familiar conditions since Kohli took over but recognized the importance of having the hunger of winning wherever they play.

“Look he is a pro active captain. He is very aggressive. He has a brilliant record to start with, though most of the games were played in India, you still have to win matches. He has led the team from the front so the rest of the boys are following on and off the field. The Test for them now will be playing away from home. They have created a good nucleus of players who are taking responsibility. There is good competition for batting and bowling positions.”

With four games to go in the ODI series, India looks like winning every one of it as the hosts are struggling to look for answers.