Sri Lanka eying to whitewash Bangladesh to improve their ranking
Photo: Collected
|| Desk Report ||
Sri Lanka Cricket's Chairman of selectors Ashantha de Mel said that they are planning to beat Bangladesh 3-0 in the upcoming three-match ODI series to improve their ODI ranking.
Sri Lanka is currently the eighth-ranked ODI team in the World with 79 rating points. On the other hand, Bangladesh is currently in the seventh position with 90 points.
If Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh 3-0 in this series it may not be enough to surpass Bangladesh in the rankings but their rating points will increase.
“Our primary goal in this series will be to improve our rankings. We are no. 8 and they are no. 7. We need to beat Bangladesh 3-0 to gain a place higher than what we are at the moment. One step up the ladder that’s what we are looking at,” De Mel said ahead of the series.
At the time of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardane, Muttiah Muralidharan and other great Sri Lankan cricketers, Sri Lanka were never this below in the ranking ladder. De Mel wants to bring back that past glory. But they are also cautious about not hurrying the improvement process.
“In those days we were never below five our main goal should be to consolidate our position slowly,” added De Mel.
Sri Lanka did better than Bangladesh in the World Cup. They finished sixth in the point table whereas Bangladesh finished eighth in the recently finished World Cup.
The three-match ODI series will start later this month [ July]. The first match will be held on July 26. And the second and third match will be on 26 and 31 July.
Before the start of the series, Bangladesh will play a practice match and all of the matches will be played in Colombo.
