Categories: Sports

Gunarathne confident of Asian success

Sri Lanka’s youngest fifteen-a-side captain Omalka Gunarathne is confident of what appears to be a very young side ahead of their Asia Championship campaign which gets underway in Chinese Taipei later this month.
Nearly half of the 26-man Sri Lanka squad is set to make their international debut for Sri Lanka during this tour with senior men like Dhanushka Ranjan, Shehan Pathirana and Richard Dharmapala all unavailable for the tour. Omalka believes that their experience will be missed but is confident of the players he has in the squad.
“Obviously we are going to miss their experience, but I think the tour to Malaysia really helped us. Some of the players in the squad had never played against foreign players before, but they got an opportunity in Malaysian tour and now they have some experience which is a very good sign. So as I said before, we would miss some of the senior players but I am confident that the younger players are capable of filling their shoes,” the number eight told Daily Mirror during a conference in Maharaja Palace on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka head coach Matt Lee believes that the selectors have picked a good squad.
“I am happy with the team that I have been given. The selectors and the coaching staff had discussions and this is the best available team. I think our strength would be our forwards and I think they did exceptionally in Malaysia. They did well in set pieces both scrums and line-outs. The backs I thought were a bit flat against Malaysia, but Fazil is working hard with them and I am sure they will play well in Chinese Taipei,” Lee told Daily Mirror.
Sri Lanka will take on Philippines in their first match which is scheduled to be played on May 29 and they need to win that game in order to qualify for the final which will be played on June

Lankanewspapers

Recent Posts

LNP – World’s first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads to space

The world’s first wooden satellite, built by Japanese researchers, was launched into space on Tuesday,…

15 hours ago

LNP – Immigration proposes to link up with hotels to track down tourist information

The Department of Immigration and Emigration has proposed to link up with the tourist hotels…

23 hours ago

LNP – Government will take legal action if rice not sold at controlled prices: President

Claiming that the government had held discussions with rice millers on the prices of rice,…

23 hours ago

LNP – Sri Lanka scraps CEB privatization plan

The Board of Directors of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has officially shelved its privatization…

23 hours ago

LNP – Online token system for collecting passports effective from Wednesday

A new online method has been introduced for the collection of passports, according to the…

23 hours ago

LNP – Over 1,500 complaints ahead of 2024 General Election

The number of complaints received by the Election Commission regarding the 2024 Parliamentary Poll has…

23 hours ago