‘Hope Mathews can do something special with ball’

Dharamsala : All-rounder Angelo Mathews brings in a lot of balance to the side with his bowling and Sri Lanka skipper Thisara Perera hopes that he does something special for the team today in the first ODI against India here.

“He is bowling in this series. He didn’t bowl in the Tests. He is prepared for ODIs and T20s. That gives us an option to balance the side. Hopefully he can do something special for us,” said Perera on the eve of the opening One dayer of the three-match series. India will be without the services of regular skipper Virat Kohli in the limited overs series after he opted for rest, but Perera feels that his team would still has to put its best foot forward against the hosts.

“India don’t have Virat Kohli. He is their best batsman. But we actually don’t think on those lines. We have to do our best. We will assess the wicket and if we play our best cricket, we can beat them,” he said.

Talking about the preparation of the team, Perera said: “We have prepared well. We had two good sessions over the last two days. We have a nice balance in the side. Hopefully we can do something special. Mentally and fitness wise we have done well.”

Asked about the players who are making a comeback to the team after recovering from injuries, Perera said: “We have a couple of players who have come from injury. It is a balanced side at the moment. We can assess what we want to do. I think (Asele) Gunaratne is back after injury and he is definitely playing. Hopefully we can do something special.” Perera did not agree that his team lacked power-hitters. “We have power hitters. When you look at Dick (Niroshan Dickwella), Danushka (Gunathilaka), Upul (Tharanga) and Angelo (Mathews) all are power hitters. We can beat any team.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan team manager Asanka Gurusinha informed that batsman Dhananjaya de Silva, who played with a glute muscle condition during his match-saving century against India in the third and final Test in Delhi, will not play in the opening game. “He (Dhananjaya) has been ruled out. He is pretty close, but didn’t want to take the risk,” Gurusinha said.

The Sri Lankan Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera had stopped nine players from travelling to India. Asked about the incident, Gurusinha said: “It is not a case of Minister not being happy with them. We had four days of holidays and the processes was missed (so they were not being cleared). Nothing else. Same team we selected. Nothing was changed. Small hiccup. It was due to four days of holidays.”

India can claim top spot

Dubai : India go into their One Day International series against Sri Lanka starting Sunday with the aim of winning 3-0 and overtaking South Africa to take top position in the ICC ODI Team Rankings.

India, who are top-ranked in Test cricket, are on 120 points in the ODI rankings, only one point behind South Africa and will go ahead if they win the first match in Dharamsala on Sunday.

India will reach 121 points and edge South Africa on decimal points if they take a 1-0 lead in the series but will have to also win the following two matches in Mohali and Visakakhapatnam on 13 and 17 December. Sri Lanka are 8th on the table with 83 points and the rankings system is weighted to reflect the difference in ranking points.  India will slip to 119 points even with a 2-1 win in the ODI series. Eighth-ranked Sri Lanka will remain on 83 points even with a 3-0 loss.