Daily Times

COLOMBO: On the surface, these are two teams short of ODI Super League points. Sri Lanka are down at 11th on the table, with only two wins from 11 completed matches. South Africa are better placed, at 10th, with two wins from five completed games. More importantly, though, both are teams who have experienced substantial upheaval over the last year, and are desperately searching for a fresh identity.For South Africa, the fallout from the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings has been profound. Some of the most damning revelations have involved coach Mark Boucher — who is with the team in Colombo. He has said that he “deeply regrets” his actions during those years, but as he is now in charge of a side that is led by a black African — Temba Bavuma— it is likely that serious soul-searching and discussions will have had to have happened within the team, ahead of this series. How all this will affect South Africa’s on-field performances, we will have to wait to find out. They are, however, coming from a drawn series, in which they lost a match to Ireland.Sri Lanka’s dysfunction is more straightforward in a way. They’re playing under their third limited-overs captain this year, in DasunShanaka. They are at serious risk of having to qualify for the 2023 World Cup, given their woeful ODI performances in the first seven months of 2021. And although their bowling is in decent shape, with WaninduHasaranga and DushmanthaChameera having been excellent during India’s tour, their top order remains brittle.On the strategy front, it seems as if Sri Lanka will use their traditional weapon against South Africa: spin. There are no fewer than five frontline spinners in the squad, as well as two offspin-bowling allrounders.

Whatever else you may feel about AkilaDananjaya, the man is tenacious. He’s had repeated suspensions over his action — including a year out of the game when he was found to be chucking a second time. But on each occasion, he has worked on his action and returned. There have also been bad games and dips in form. But he never seems to stay down for long. From the sounds of Shanaka’s pre-match press conference, Sri Lanka are banking on spin for this match, which means Dananjaya will have a significant role to play. Having leapfrogged Lakshan Sandakan in the previous series, against India, Dananjaya will be keen to impose himself as Sri Lanka’s second spinner (alongside Hasaranga), and make his place in the XI more secure.Sri Lanka seem likely to play three frontline spinners — left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama being the third.

With David Miller nursing a hamstring injury for this series, Heinrich Klaasen has a golden opportunity to make a case for a permanent middle-order role. Klaasen played in only one of South Africa’s three ODIs in Ireland, after a poor home series against Pakistan in April, where he scored 16 runs in three innings after recovering from Covid-19. But, he has the tools to offer much more. If he wants to be involved in the building process for 2023, this is chance to make sure he will be.Expect the Khettarama surface to take plenty of turn, as it often does when South Africa are in town. There is also the possibility of bad weather interrupting play — afternoon thunderstorms have not been uncommon over the past few weeks.

Squads:

Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Avishka Fernando, 2 MinodBhanuka (wk), 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 4 Dhananjaya de Silva, 5 CharithAsalanka, 6 DasunShanaka (capt.), 7 WaninduHasaranga, 8 ChamikaKarunaratne, 9 AkilaDananjaya, 10 DushmanthaChameera, 11 Praveen Jayawickrama

South Africa (possible): 1 Janneman Malan, 2 Temba Bavuma (capt), 3 Aiden Markram, 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Kyle Verreynne, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 George Linde, 9 KagisoRabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 TabraizShamsi.