After Sri Lanka’s campaign came to an end in 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup with a five-wicket loss to New Zealand, head coach Chris Silverwood sees inconsistency as the reason behind his team’s poor performance in the tournament.
Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions, were already out of reckoning for the semifinals and suffered their seventh defeat of the tournament to New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, ending in ninth place in the points table.
“I think inconsistency. I think it would be fair to use that word. I think we’ve played some good cricket along the way, and I think we’ll look back on certain games and rue missed opportunities, to be honest.
“There has been certain games during this campaign that if we’d have taken the opportunities that were put our way, this could have looked a lot different. But the fact is that we have been inconsistent and it’s something that we’ve been working on for a long time and something we need to continue working on. So, inconsistent is a word we can use,” said Silverwood in the post-match press conference.
He went on to say that the performance of the team during their World Cup in India will be reviewed and ponder over the areas which need improvement for future events. “I think there’s always something to look forward to. I think what we have to do now is, obviously, let the emotions settle a little bit.”
“Then, as I said earlier, have a good debrief, dissect what’s happened and have a look at what we can learn from this and what we can take into the next phase, the next chapter leading into the next World Cup, and how do we put things right that we got wrong this time.”
“What do we need to put in place at home. What structure do we need to put in place and just really plan a proper plan leading to the next cycle to make sure that when we arrive at that cycle, we have everybody on the path, we have everybody available and we can put our best foot forward.”
Sri Lanka always had issues with consistency with the bat in the competition and even dropped ten chances in the tournament, apart from injuries to regular captain Dasun Shanaka and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
“It’s frustrating because I mean certain catches that we’ve put down during this tournament have cost us heavily. It’s again something that we’re constantly working on. Our fielding coach is constantly working on that and trying to obviously push the standards higher.
“But clearly there’s still work to be done as well. I mean, we are getting ourselves in positions where there’s more catches coming our way. We’ve been brave and going for half chances more, but clearly, we have to start hanging on to these if we want to start turning games in our favour,” concluded Silverwood.
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