What has RANGANA HERATH done wrong to be left out?

What has he done wrong to be omitted from the Asia Cup squad? Doesn’t he know how to bowl, bat, field or is there something wrong with his physique? Whatever the case may be, Rangana Herath deserves to be in the Srilankan Asia Cup squad, which starts on
Sunday, March 11 with the game between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Having recently finished their tour of Australia where the Lankan Lions finished runners-up, they are certainly the favourites to win this year’s competition. However, they will definitely miss the left-arm orthodox spin of Herath, who is always ready to
give his hundred percent whether he is bowling or fielding. Well, batting is another issue with the chubby Lankan but he is part of the team for his bowling and selectors must take note of this.

If Herath has been dropped due to his poor batting skills than it is advisable for the selectors to note that one can’t expect an individual to be at his best in every department of the game. Just as one can’t expect Mahela Jayawardena to win Srilanka a
game with his bowling, similarly Herath can’t win Srilanka a game with his batting but he could certainly have proved fruitful under the Bangladeshi conditions.

The 33-year-old must himself be disappointed after a successful Commonwealth Bank series in Australia where the spinner bagged seven wickets from his nine outings. Now, one must be thinking that it is not even one wicket per game but the fact is that Aussie
conditions do not always help the spinners.

If you see the recent stats from the CB series than Aussie left-arm spinner, Xavier Doherty picked up 9 wickets from 11 games. Similarly India’s Ravichandran Ashwin bagged 7 wickets from as many games. Why only Herath had to face the axe when even the opposition
spinners weren’t as successful as their team might have expected of them?

Out of the above mentioned three spinners, Herath had the best economy rate in the recently concluded series in Australia which gives a decent account of the spinner’s ability. An economy rate of 4.41 for any spinner in this modern era is no kind of a joke
and if Srilankan selectors want to replace him with someone who goes at more than five runs per over than they are most welcome to drop the experienced spinner even in the upcoming test series against England.

A 10-over spell for less than 50 runs is perfect for any team as it puts immense pressure on the opposition and there is a great chance of picking up wickets from the other end. In my view, Srilankan selectors need to rethink their selection policy and adjust
Herath in the 14-man squad possibly in place of  Chamara Kapugadera. The batsman came into the side only to replace Thisara Perera, who got injured during the CB series.

Perera is unlikely to be fit in time for the tournament which should prompt the selectors to express their faith in Herath and include him as he could prove to be Srilanka’s prized asset under useful conditions in the subcontinent.

Best of Luck Rangana Herath for the future and we hope to see you demolishing England all alone and proving the selectors wrong if you still don’t get picked up for the Asia Cup!

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=15224

Posted by Taha Habib on Mar 9 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry