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‘We need to work on our batting’

ABU DHABI - Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan blamed his side’s batting for the failure against Pakistan in the Test and ODI series.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq and wicketkeeper-batsman Umar Akmal led the way after a four-wicket burst by Sohail Tanvir in the fifth One-Day International at the Shaikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday night.

Chasing 219, Misbah made 66, while Umar scored an unbeaten 61 as Pakistan won by three wickets to make it a series to forget for Sri Lanka.

It was almost as though the Sri Lankan batting never turned up except for the warhorse Kumar Sangakkara. Sri Lanka lost the three-match Test series 0-1 and the five-match One-Day Internationals 1-4.

Dilshan said that the bowling was a positive but the batsmen needed to step up. “I can still take positives, especially from the bowling unit, who did a great job throughout the series. However, we must be worried about the batting as most of the batsmen didn’t click.

“We played seven batsmen, but in every match only two or three were performing and the rest were failing. So, there are some areas of concern that we have to sit down to discuss. Everyone has to take responsibility before going to South Africa,” said Dilshan.

Sri Lanka’s next tour is against South Africa. He said that batsmen will go back to domestic cricket in order to prepare for the series against South Africa.

“We have three weeks before the next tour starts. I think the batting group should work hard. It’s better that we can go back to the Sri Lankan domestic season and every one can play at least two to three matches to get form. Everyone knows there are mistakes, and they can correct them quickly before going to South Africa,” he said.

Dilshan too has been going through a poor run of form but said that he would come good soon enough and denied that captaincy was affecting his batting.

james@khaleejtimes.com