Question : Kusal Perera has not fired so far, what’s wrong? Is it anything to do with injury?
MICKEY ARTHUR: No, look, Kusal hasn’t played a huge amount of cricket before this World Cup because he was looking after that injury. And we were looking after that injury as well.
And I’d be wrong to say that he’s playing at 100 percent, because he is restricted in a little way. But Kusal Janith restricted for me is still a match winner for us.
So I’ll back him 100 percent. I know there’s a match winning innings from Kusal Janith just around the corner. And he’s got total backing from myself and the team, because we know what he brings, and we know when he fires he wins us games of cricket.
Kusal Perera obviously is danger man. I know you weren’t playing the last World Cup, the one-day World Cup, but he did a bit of damage for Sri Lanka, but how much — you’re in the bowling meetings, how much planning goes in to try to stop a guy like him?
MATTHEW WADE: There’s plenty of planning that goes into T20. I’d love a lot of the public and the fans to see actually how much planning goes in. It’s probably the most planned format, I think, over the three.
So the bowlers and Andrew McDonald, the bowling coach, spent a lot of time with the batters. And Perera is a world-class hitter, and he’ll be looking to go hard against their bowlers. But that’s the great thing about T20 and about World Cups, the best versus the best.
We’re pretty confident that the guys that open the bowling for us can do a really good job and we can get early wickets and put them under a little bit of pressure. But, yeah, as excited as anyone to see those contests. (CricWire)