ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 24, 2021

Bhanuka Rajapaksa

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

Sri Lanka

Post Match Media Conference

Bangladesh - 171/4 (20), Sri Lanka - 172/5 (18.5)

Q. Have these been the best days of your life?

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSA: Last night, I'm a big believer in my God so last night when I was praying, I just wanted a big birthday present and then I wanted to finish the match off.

But scoring a match-winning 50, it's more than enough, I praise the Lord for everything He's done for me.

Q. Happy birthday, and a couple of updates. I hope Maheesh is recovering well and hopefully we can use him for the next game. And what about you, we saw you struggling halfway through your innings.

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSA: Thanks for the wishes. Yeah, I think Maheesh okay to play from the next game because it's minor injury, so we don't want to risk him playing against Bangladesh today, and we didn't want to risk not playing him in the rest of the games.

For me, I think we had to leave early from the hotel and food was not what I expected, so I didn't have no breakfast, no lunch. I just had a bit of a dizzy feeling, that's about it. I'm all right.

Q. Is this strategy something you're going to continue? Because we've seen that over the last few games, you've opted to bowl first and chase it down. Has this become Sri Lanka's brand and strength that we will put the opposition in and keep chasing it down, or is it based solely on conditions?

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSA: I think it depends solely on conditions because one reason I think we wanted to bowl first is because we have a really versatile fast bowling attack. And it's just, you know, the day wasn't good for us against Bangladesh today because the wicket was much than we expected. Usually Sharjah wicket, it tends to help the fast bowlers. Going forward, I think we'll be changing, adapting from the wicket and it's just a strategy that we used today.

Q. I just wanted to ask you a quick question, what do you make of the rivalry between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh? You've been quite neck-to-neck in a lot of formats. Is it a factor that it spurs the team to go after a win when you play each other?

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSA: I think as Mushfiqur spoke before me, it's not about rival. I think it's just, as he mentioned, we have lost a couple of legends and we are a rebuilding side. And we are quite young and we have started believing in ourselves and that's one of the reasons that we've been really consistent.

It's not a rivalry. It's just that Bangladesh, we play good correct at the moment. It depends on the day that who plays well will be winning the game. It's not about a rivalry.

Q. Sri Lanka played a fantastic knock. Mohammad Naim (ph) has always been a problem for Sri Lanka in the recent past and he was amazing today. How do you rate his knock?

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSA: I think it's a fantastic effort. The result, it's phenomenal because the way Charith handled the situation and how he kept the tempo of the game is unbelievable. It's not easy playing a No. 3 when we've been struggling to find a proper No. 3 batsman.

Myself, I've batted No. 3. It's not an easy position to keep on because you need to play with the scoreboard mostly. But after losing KJP, it's a crucial wicket that we lost in the first over. Chasing 170-odd runs and having lost KJP in the first two, I think Charith did a phenomenal job.

It's just amazing how we kept on scoring and the intent was very positive. I think he has a bright future for Sri Lanka and I wish him all the best, and I hope he will be performing like this throughout the tournament.

Q. He says he sees the inexperience in your side as a positive for Sri Lanka going into the tournament, given you can play with a lot of freedom. Is that how you are approaching the tournament?

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSA: I think when we approach or when we play the first round games, we were underdogs before we entered the Super 12. It's such a relief that we don't have to worry too much because of course expectations, 22 million people are hoping that we will be bringing the Cup back home and the inexperience I would say, no, we have a couple of experienced guys who have had played games at the international level.

At the same time what we have started doing is we have started believing in each other and we have started speaking to each other. We believe in all the boys. It could be top-order batsman, middle-order batsman, or even the bowlers; it's just a complete team effort. That's how we've been consistent throughout the eight games.

I think we've been playing against Oman in a couple of practice games and all three first round games and it's a massive win. I think we could always look back on that.