Sri Lanka manager Asanka Gurusinha defends Dinesh Chandimal's 'witchcraft' comment

Sri Lankan cricket team is going through a transition phase, and are failing miserably in any series they play. However, the Lions surprisingly won the 2-match Test series against an in-form Pakistani team last month. After the clean sweep, skipper Dinesh Chandimal revealed that he received blessings from ‘meyni’ (sorcerer) which helped them bag the series.

The team is in Kolkata now, preparing for the first match of the 3-match Test series against India. Because of his previous comment, he had to hear many questions about whether he sought blessings from ‘meyni’ or not before coming to the series.

However, the 27-year-old cricketer from Balapitiya had team manager Asanka Gurusinha coming to his defence and replying, “He has answered some questions back there. In cricket, you got to get out there and perform on the field. Each player has to do that. That’s the way the Sri Lankan team believe. Yes, we have our own religious beliefs like all of your. But at the end of the day, you go there and just play.”

The team management hasn’t included pacer Nuwan Pradeep in the side since his fitness is not up to the mark. However, Asanka confirmed that the bowler will be available for ODIs.

“We can’t take on the no 1 side with injured players. We want to give him time to build his fitness level. He will be definitely there for the ODI series and we will start from there. He’s not out of Test cricket for us. Hopefully, he will be back by Bangladesh early next year,” the 51-year-old said during a media interaction.

It’s our job to protect Kusal Mendis

Ever since the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has given chance to many budding players to showcase their talent. The front-runner amongst them is certainly Kusal Mendis. However, he was dropped from the team because of his poor run of form, which saw him fail to score a half-century in 13 innings.

When the Lankan team manager, who has represented his nation 147 times in ODIs, was asked about this decision, he commented: “We know he (Kusal Mendis) is one of our future players. It’s up to us to protect and guide him through. If we brought him here and he failed, he would have been out of the team for nearly one and half years. We didn’t want to do that. We have some plans for him. We want him to play domestic cricket. I believe he will come strong.”