Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur has said he wants his batters to focus more in the middle overs. He shared his views in a pre tournament virtual press briefing which took place yesterday (17).
Arthur was discussing several items he wants the players to focus in England, and reiterated that better performance in the middle overs will be a key for Sri Lanka who are looking to turn around their fortunes in the limited overs formats.
He highlighted the importance of Higher strike rates, better rotation of strike and more intensity when the field spreads in the middle overs. This is an area Sri Lanka faltered twice in Bangladesh, which lead to the 2-1 series loss.
“It’s about the intensity required through that middle period. Our strike rotation and intensity at the crease are really areas that we’ve worked on in this training block.” He said, giving an idea on what the batters are focusing during training in England.
Arthur said that Sri Lanka needs the middle order batters to put their hand up, he was happy with the top order of the batting.
“If you look at KJP, Avishka and Danushka at 1, 2 and 3, that’s pretty good. We need to drill down and get 4, 5 and 6 batting comfortably within their roles as well, so that those middle overs – when we need to rotate strike – we’ve actually practiced it and the people we’ve sent into those positions can handle it.” He further said.
The Sri Lanka head coach also said the team needs to settle down with a batting order as soon as possible.
“We can’t be jumping around having players bat in so many positions because that just creates confusion”
Sri Lanka begin their tour with the 1st T20I on the 23rd of June. After the three T20Is, Sri Lanka will play 3 ODIs, starting with the 1st ODI on 29th June. England earlier named a strong squad to take on the Lankans in the T20s.