'The team is really low on confidence'

Avishka Gunawardene, Sri Lanka’s limited-overs batting coach, made a candid admission that his team’s confidence was “really down” after conceding a 4-0 lead to India in the five-match ODI series.

“Look, it has gone beyond our control now,” he said when asked about Lanka’s direct World Cup qualification. “We have to make sure that we try and win the game tomorrow.

That is the only way we can turn things around. If I say that mood is really good in the camp then I will be lying. To be brutally honest, confidence level is really down and naturally so when you are 4-0 down. But I must say that the guys are trying hard. Their enthusiasm is still pretty high. We have been trying to give them certain targets and hopefully we can achieve those targets,” he said on the eve of the final ODI here.

Specifically talking about the targets, Gunawardene said increasing number of dot balls has been a cause of concern.

“Dot balls have become a big issue for us,” he pointed out. “Our dot ball ratio in the last 12 months is something like 145 in a game. That is almost 50 percent (of the total number of balls in an innings). That is one area that we have to rectify. We have told the team to improve that area by about 15 percent. We are trying to see whether we could improve our singles ratio while cutting down on dot ball ratio. Another target is that we try to tell the top five that someone has to bat for 45 overs. Batting partnership is something that we have spoken where we ask players to give us a 100-plus stand and a 75-plus stand. We achieved those targets in the Zimbabwe series,” he explained.

The batting struggles, Gunawardene felt, were more to do with mental side of it than any technical issues. Twice Lanka have failed to last 50 overs and their highest in the series so far has been 236/8 in the second ODI at Pallekele with only four individual fifties to boast in four matches.

“The technical side we don’t want to mess around with while a series is on,” he stressed. “It’s more mental preparations that we need to work on. Tactical parts to work on more than technical. That is what we are lacking.”