ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 22, 2021

Bhanuka Rajpaksa

Sharjah Stadium

Sri Lanka

Post Match Media Conference

Sri Lanka 45/2, Netherlands 44

Q. Three wins and very confident going into; how much of it is for the coming matches, especially this emphatic victory leading into the coming matches?

BHANUKA RAJPAKSA: It's always special to win games, whether it's playing against associate teams or whether it's against good teams. Winners have been -- it's tough on our backs for the boys. So going forward I think we'll be facing much harder sides than Netherlands, Ireland and Namibia, and extremely happy that Namibia went through because being an associate side. I they played some good cricket, as well. I think going forward this is some good confidence for the boys, yeah.

Q. In hindsight since you guys had already gone to the tournament proper and almost topped the group, was there any sort of thought that given the condition of the wicket that you would want to bat first and take a look at things?

BHANUKA RAJPAKSA: See, of course I think we wanted to have a bat first if we win the toss, but at the same time I think our mastermind in the dressing room, especially someone like Mahela Jayawardene. We always wanted to win rather than playing for ourselves.

We knew that the Dutch is not the most strongest side, but still we wanted to keep them to a low score and get it as soon as possible. I think it worked, and having a win behind us is much better than having individual performances.

Q. I think it's been addressed, but Theekshana's injury, what's the situation?

BHANUKA RAJPAKSA: See, we have the condition. I don't know what it is for sure, but the officials said the condition may be to leave him for the next game, and we don't want to risk it by playing him and not playing him in the rest of the series. At the moment he will be missing the next game as far as I know. It's not 100 per cent decided yet, but most probably he will miss the first game and then play the rest of the games.

Q. Could you speak a bit more generally about the bowling attack and how impressive it is, obviously sort of 90 miles an hour, 145K quick bowlers and then two mystery spinners?

BHANUKA RAJPAKSA: See, I think as we spoke before, I think it's such a benefit having two bowlers who's bowling around 90 miles per hour. Any batsmen, they get shook because bowling at 145 plus and not having any room, just bowling good areas, it's always difficult as a batsman to get over.

I think at the same time, the spinners have been extremely good for us, and they've been sticking to their basics, and that's one of the reasons why we have been winning throughout this tournament.

Q. We understand Mahela will be returning. How much was his presence important in this super performance, and also, will there be a connection with Jayawardene from Sri Lanka or what?

BHANUKA RAJPAKSA: Yeah, so Mahela Jayawardene is going to be leaving today because of course he is a father and he has not seen his kids for like almost six months, and we totally understand that, but we wish that he was with us for the rest of the tournament, as well.

But yes, he has made us a plan already. He had taken about 14, 15 hours yesterday with analysing and made some plans, but yeah, via Zoom, whatever internet connection we can get through, we will be dealing with him.

The presence of him, I don't need to comment about it. Everyone has seen the difference of the side. We are very thankful for that he has put into this club, and we want to work with him in the future, as well.