Kumar Sangakkara believes Sri Lanka will have too much firepower for minnows Canada as the 1996 champions launch their World Cup campaign at a new stadium on Sunday.
Published: Feb 20, 2011, 01:31 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 20, 2011, 01:31 PM (IST)
Kumar Sangakkara believes Sri Lanka will have too much firepower for minnows Canada as the 1996 champions launch their World Cup campaign at a new stadium on Sunday.
By Shahid Hashmi
Hambantota: Feb 20, 2011
Kumar Sangakkara believes Sri Lanka will have too much firepower for minnows Canada as the 1996 champions launch their World Cup campaign at a new stadium on Sunday.
Despite having little knowledge of Canada, and of the ground in the tourist town of Hambantota, Sangakkara is confident his team will make a bright start.
“We are confident of a good start and when we go to play sides that we haven’t played much we don’t need to worry because in those games it’s all about us, how well we do and how well we play our cricket,” said Sangakkara.
Sri Lanka will be without middle-order batsman Chamara Silva, whose elder sister died on Thursday, making way for all-rounder Thisara Perera to bolster both bowling and batting.
Sangakkara said giving a run-out to all 15 players in the squad in the warm-up matches had been crucial. “We had given chances to all 15 players in the warm-up matches, so that when an opportunity arrives we have another player to fill the gap,” said Sangakkara, who denied he was already thinking ahead to the clash against Pakistan.
“We can’t think ahead. Once we finish Sunday’s match then only we will plan and think about the match against Pakistan,” said Sangakkara, referring to the match in Colombo on February 26.
Sri Lanka, runners-up in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, go into the tournament in good shape after comfortable wins in their two warm-up matches.
All of the side’s batsmen — except for Mahela Jayawardene — had good workouts in the build-up and are likely to relish the inexperienced Canadian bowling attack.
© AFP
