Jayawardene believes the performance of his all-rounders will be key in winning the ICC World Twenty20

Many people expect Sri Lanka’s death bowlers and top order batsmen to be the most important members of the team in regards to the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20, but captain Mahela Jayawardene believes otherwise, stating that the all-rounders in his team are vital to every one of their victories.

Sri Lanka have been building a strong and reliable lineup of all-rounders, with Angelo Matthews, Jeevan Mendis and Thisara Perera all proving to be effective with both bat and ball.

However, in the past few months, Nuwan Kulasekera, who has been known for his outstanding bowling, has also become a useful batsman lower down the order for Sri Lanka, and opening batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan has made a name for himself by confusing a lot of batsmen with his off-spin bowling.

“[The allrounders] give us a lot of options in our team combination, so we can pick more batsmen or more bowlers to suit conditions and opposition, and still have a balanced team, they give me options, because if you have some guys who aren’t hitting their stride, I can keep rotating the bowlers and one bowler having an off day won’t hurt us. Likewise, if someone who wouldn’t be a first-choice bowler is going really well and getting wickets, you can get four really good overs out of him. If your bowlers can bat as well, that gives you the depth in your line-up,” Jayawardene said.

Dilshan and Matthews have both been in tremendous form, especially after playing in the inaugural edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL), where Matthews had a batting average of 70.33, which is the highest amongst the batsmen that had crossed the 100 run mark.

Matthews ended his time in the SLPL with 211 runs, which put him at second on the top runs-scorers’ list, while Dilshan finished in fourth with 195 runs, but having done so in one fewer innings.

Jayawardene stated that he was extremely pleased with the emergence of Matthews and Perera over the past year and a half, and believes they are now key players in the Sri Lanka lineup.

“[Perera] has worked on his bowling and he has seen the results of that in the last year, where he picked up a lot of wickets for us, and there’s a lot to like about how he goes about his game. We’ve all seen what [Mathews] can do as well. He played an amazing knock in the SLPL final, and he’s been playing those back-against-the-wall kinds of innings for Sri Lanka in the past, so those two look very promising for us,” Jayawardene added.

Jayawardene also noted that even though many of the players in the side had become proficient with both bat and ball, they still know which area they excel in most.

“I don’t think there will be a problem with that, because everyone knows what they have to do and what their focus is,” he said. “We have a unit that has been together for a while, and everyone knows their role in the team,” Jayawardene said.

With Sri Lanka making the final in three out of the last four limited overs World Cups, Jayawardene believes his team need to push and fight harder to bring home the trophy.

“Getting ourselves into the semi-finals and final means that we are doing most of the things right, but perhaps we need to push a little bit more in a big game, like a final, to win it, I’ve always said that playing in big tournaments and playing well is a big plus. Yes, we’ve stumbled in a few finals in the last five years, but I look at it in a positive way and say, ‘We’re getting there and doing the right thing’,” Jayawardene added.

Before the start of the ICC World Twenty20, Sri Lanka announced that they would be picking 18-year-old spinner Akila Dananjaya in a move that shocked many since the young spinner had only played six games in his short career, with all of them being in the SLPL, where he first captured the attention of Jayawardene.

“We have to see how he reacts and handles himself around the squad. From what I’ve seen in the provincial tournament, he doesn’t look scared at all. We’ve got two senior spinners [Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis] in the squad who can do the job, but if Akila is up to the task, we will use him,” Jayawardene said.