Vikram Rathour is not one for panic. The Sri Lanka batting coach, speaking before the final group match against Zimbabwe, insisted the side have stayed true to their methods despite that 3-0 defeat in England on the eve of this T20 World Cup.
“As far as sorting out the issues, I don’t think there were any issues anyway,” Rathour said. “As a team you have some good games, you won’t have good games on some days. As long as you are focused on the areas that you need to work on. I was not really too concerned with the results in the England series. Nothing really has changed [since then]. We are still preparing the way we were.”
The recent evidence supports him. Sri Lanka brushed aside Australia thanks to a thunderous hundred from Pathum Nissanka, while Kusal Mendis peeled off three fifties in a row to open the tournament. Rathour was happy to dwell on the positive trend rather than the scoreless patches that came before.
“Yeah, very impressive,” he said of the batting up-tick. “We played, I think, almost the perfect batting innings. Pathum played one of the better T20 knocks that you’ll see. And Kusal has been very consistent, and he’s been doing that for us again and again. Again Pawan [Rathnayake] was really good [too]. So everything went to plan.”
Rathnayake, 21 and only a handful of matches into his international career, has caught the eye with brisk cameos of 60 and 28 not out. Rathour, asked what he had tweaked, suggested the answer lay more in the head than in the nets.
“My input has been pretty simple. He’s a terrific player against spin. He uses his feet really well, he can play the angles and that’s what he’s doing. One honest conversation with him was about intent, keep the intent going, even when he’s playing fast bowlers.
“If you get a ball which should be hit, you need to hit that ball, whether it’s the first ball of the innings or whether it’s the tenth ball of the innings. I think he has taken that on board.”
That feeds into a wider philosophy Rathour likes to champion. Form, he argues, will waver; class, or “self-belief”, should not.
“I don’t believe in confidence actually because confidence goes with the results,” he explained. “I think as players or as a team you need to have self-belief or self-esteem which is more important. Even if Pathum scores two zeroes, he’s still a terrific player. That fact does not change.”
Selection wise, eyes are on the left-hander Kamil Mishara, battling the experienced Kusal Perera for a top-order berth. Rathour did not tip his hand but hinted both could yet have roles to play during the Super Eight phase, where the pitches in Bridgetown and Gros Islet are expected to be truer than the two-paced surfaces seen so far.
Outside the camp, praise has flowed. Farveez Maharoof reckoned “Nissanka stands up when it matters most,” while former Australia spinner Ashton Agar and ex-India selector Saba Karim each lauded the opener’s clean hitting against the short ball. Those assessments tally with the numbers: Nissanka’s strike-rate against pace, 175 this tournament, is well above his career mark.
The challenge now is repetition under sharper pressure. Sri Lanka, champions in 2014, have not gone beyond the last eight since. The coaching staff believe the blend of senior poise and youthful daring, anchored by the likes of Nissanka and Mendis, gives them a fair crack this time.
They also know the margin for error tightens from here. A loose new-ball spell or a sluggish powerplay can end a campaign in half an hour. Rathour’s antidote is the same he has preached for months: sound preparation, calm minds, and that enduring, if intangible, quality of self-belief.
