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Sri Lanka assistant coach Naveed Nawaz talked about Kusal Mendis' not performing to potential after a blistering start in the tournament and said he has been given the freedom to go about in his preferred fashion.
Sri Lanka will take on New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. Mendis kicked off the World Cup with eye-catching knocks of 79 and 122 against South Africa and Pakistan respectively. But after those two knocks, his performance went down. "I think it's about the mental clarity. We've had many discussions and he's been given the freedom to go about in his preferred fashion," Nawaz said. "We've discussed before the tournament and agreed that all players are going to play with a positive tempo. And that's how you should be playing and that's how we have succeeded as well. And there's no difference to Kusal Mendis's approach. We've told him that he's only captaining on the field when we are bowling. That when he goes into the middle, not to carry that burden as a captain, that he'll be a batter in the middle," he added. Since Dasun Shanaka's World Cup was cut short due to an injury and Mendis stepped up to fill his captaincy role. "We've tried to clear his mind as much as possible, not sort of trying to put a burden of captaincy on him. I'm sure it would have been an extra burden on him, taking over the captaincy in the middle of important tournaments such as the World Cup. I think mainly when it comes to batters, I think it's about the mental clarity because they might play a rash shot and get out. It's very difficult to say whether he should have played the shot or should have not played the shot because the main thing that we don't want to do is push them into a shell and sort of hamper their confidence," Nawaz said. Sri Lanka's clash against the Kiwis will be more or less a do-or-die match. Their chances of qualification for the Champions Trophy 2025 will heavily depend on the result as well as the aftermath of their clash. Nawaz talked about the tactical approach that they are going to adopt against the Blackcaps. "Yeah, we have always played six batters, all-round and four bowlers. For the last couple of months, since we lost Dasun Shanaka, who was batting for us at number seven, we've opted to play with four main bowlers and Dhananjaya batting at seven as the all-rounder. I think in these wickets, that's the least combination you can do. You need to play your 4 bowlers and your all-rounder who should be able to bowl at least 7-8 overs and there should be somebody else who has a cover-up bowler in your playing eleven. So, I think we might not be able to get away from that because the grounds are smaller, the wickets are flatter. So, we need bowlers who can execute the skills." New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young. Sri Lanka Squad: Kusal Mendis (c), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Angelo Mathews, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushan Hemantha, Chamika Karunaratne. (ANI)
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