SRI LANKA CRICKET NEWS
(APRIL 2022)
Compiled by Victor Melder
Sri Lanka national team will tour Bangladesh for a two-match Test series from May 15.The first Test will be held from May 15 to 19 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chattogram (formerly known as Chittagong) while the second Test will commence from May 23 to 27 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Minpuir, Dhaka. The series will be played under the ICC World Test Championship. The two-day practice match will be played prior to the Test series on May 11, 12 at MA Aziz Stadium, Chattogram. Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed this tour schedule yesterday. (Daily News, 1.4.2022
Englishman Chris Silverwood has been appointed as the new Head Coach of Sri Lanka’s national men’s cricket team. Silverwood takes up the position that has been vacant since January, after Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) decided against extending the two-year contract of South African Mickey Arthur. Silverwood most recently coached the England men’s team, but was removed after the disastrous Ashes series, when England lost all but one of the five Tests. His first assignment with Sri Lanka will be the Test series in Bangladesh next month, before embarking on series involving Australia, Pakistan and India, along with the 2022 T20 World Cup.(Daily Mirror Online, 9.4.2022)
Former Sri Lanka Test and ODI player Naveed Nawaz has been appointed as the Assistant Coach of the National Team for a two year term, effective from 1 April. Nawaz, before taking over the new role, was functioning as the Head Coach of the Bangladesh Under-19 team, where he led the team to an ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020. His first competitive assignment with the national team will be the upcoming Sri Lanka Tour of Bangladesh, which will also be the first such assignment of the newly appointed Head Coach Chris Silverwood. In the meantime, the following coaches were appointed to work with the national team during the upcoming tour:
• Chaminda Vaas – Fast Bowling Coach
• Piyal Wijetunge – Spin Bowling Coach
• Manoj Abeywickrama – Fielding and Support Coach
Mahinda Halangoda will be the Team Manager for the tour. Sri Lanka will play a two-match test series during the tour of Bangladesh, under the ICC World Test Championship. (Ceylon Today, 17.4.2022)
Pat Cummins leads a 16-man group to play in the two-Test series in Galle, while Aaron Finch heads an extended white-ball group. After losing his place at the top of the order to Usman Khawaja during the Australian summer, Marcus Harris has missed out on a place in the Test squad altogether. Cummins will miss the T20 leg in preparation for the Tests and ODIs, while Adam Zampa will miss the tour for the birth of his first child. Andrew McDonald oversaw the team on an interim basis in Pakistan after Justin Langer’s resignation, winning the Test series as part of the World Test Championship and claiming the sole T20I in what was a successful tour. Despite rumours and calls for his selection for the Test leg of the trip, Glenn Maxwell remains an exclusively white ball player, named in both ODI and T20I squads. With important World Test Championship points on the line, the tourists can ill-afford a similar Test series to that of their last Sri Lanka visit in 2016, falling in a heavy 3-0 clean sweep. Galle was not a happy hunting ground for the Aussies in the second Test of the series, bowled out for 106 and 183, and eventually losing by 229 runs. On the white-ball side, things were merrier for the tourists, winning both the T20I and ODI series convincingly. The tour is one of three foreign trips for the Australian team in 2022, who are also set to travel to India for the Border-Gavaskar series in October. An Australia A squad will also travel to Sri Lanka, playing two one-day and four-day matches.
Australian Test squad: Pat Cummins (C), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus, Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner
Australian ODI squad: Aaron Finch (C), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner
Australian T20I Squad: Aaron Finch (C) Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner, Matthew Wade
Australia A squad: Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Pete Handscomb, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Nic Maddinson, Todd Murphy, Josh Philippe, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, Mark Steketee
Tour Itinerary
7 June: First T20I, Colombo
8 June: Second T20I, Colombo
11 June: Third T20I, Kandy
14 June: First ODI, Kandy
16 June: Second ODI, Kandy
19 June: Third ODI, Colombo
21 June: Fourth ODI, Colombo
24 June: Fifth ODI, Colombo
29 June-July 3: First Test, Galle
8-12 July: Second Test, Galle (Ceylon Today, 29.4.2022
