Captain Kusal Mendis said on Friday that Sri Lanka has an opportunity to prove they have improved since their miserable World Cup campaign last year in their white ball series against Zimbabwe, which begins this weekend.
After captain Dasun Shanaka had to withdraw due to injury, Mendis guided the team to a second-place finish in the World Cup, ahead of only the Netherlands.
Mendis, who was named the team’s one-day captain this week, said that the group had practiced hard to improve their fielding after 16 catches were dropped in India.
“Over the last two weeks, we have put a lot of effort into the field. We were very disappointed with the World Cup,” he said.
It was quite disheartening. Had we been more disciplined on the pitch, we may have performed better at the World Cup,” he said.
“I can promise you that there’s been a lot of hard work and you can see the results in this upcoming series.”
Three Twenty20 matches and three One-Day Internationals between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will take place in Colombo commencing on Saturday.
The one-day games are a component of the Super League, which will decide who gets to go to the 2027 ODI World Cup in southern Africa.
Due to the 10 team cap in the previous two World Cups, the two-time champion West Indies were not able to compete in the India showcase.
eleventh place After competing in every World Cup from 1983 to 2015, Zimbabwe did not participate in the last two events. Craig Ervine, the captain, welcomed the announcement that additional teams will be allowed to enter the next competition.
“More teams participating in international competitions like the World Cup is crucial. For cricket, it’s better,” he said.
“Teams like us don’t get to play top teams like India, Australia and England often and events like the World Cup are the only occasion we get to compete against the best.”