Sri Lanka will look to put behind the hammering they received at the hands of South Africa in their just-concluded Test Series and gear up for a three-match T20 series starting Friday (January 20). The first game will take place at SuperSport Park, Centurion.
Also read: India and South Africa likely to play Test, ODI and T20 series
South Africa have decided to go for young bloods and will see a number of players making their T20 debuts in this match, including: Jon-Jon Smuts, Theunis de Bruyn, Mangaliso Mosehle, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dane Paterson and Lungi Ngidi. The side will be captained by an experienced Farhaan Behardien who said he wanted to be a "light-hearted skipper" and wanted his players to take their own calls.
"I want to be a light-hearted skipper. My style is to empower my teammates. I want them to make their own decisions. When they are confronted with a pressure situation, I expect them to show good judgment. I didn't cover myself in glory three or four years back but it's also tough to make it on the international stage. I just try not to think too much about what other people think," Cricbuzz quoted the 33-year-old South Africa captain as saying.
He also said that dashing left-handed batsman David Miller will be pushed high up the batting order to take control of things since the line-up would feature a lot of inexperienced players.
"With regard to David Miller, I will grant him his wish of batting higher because he has been very destructive over the last few months and the Knights have utilised him slightly up the order at number four. They have given him time to face more balls and we all know that if Miller faces about 50 balls, he will most probably score a hundred," Behardien was quoted as saying.
The Asians, on the other hand, are in doldrums. They are currently on a six-match losing streak in T20s and have won just one of their last 10 encounters. They were thorougly beaten (3-0) by the South Africans in the just-concluded Test series.
However, the Sri Lankans have taken a leaf out of the hosts' book and gone for an overhauling by retaining just six of the 14 members of the squad which was selected for the Tests. Uncapped batting all-rounder Thikshila de Silva and left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan could come into the eleven in the upcoming match. It will Sri Lanka's first limited-over game since the retirement of Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews was hoping that the fresh faces will give them a positive start in the T20 series as well as the five-match one-day international series coming up after it.
"Hopefully we can start afresh. We have some fresh faces in the T20 team and hopefully we can beat South Africa. We have still got a long way to go in South Africa; so we need to keep our heads high," Mathews was quoted as saying.
The first T20 match between South Africa and Sri Lanka is set to start at 18:00 local time (4:00pm GMT, 9:30pm IST)
Where to watch
India and Sri Lanka: TV: Ten HD/Ten 3. Live Streaming: Ten Network
South Africa: TV: SuperSport 3. Live Streaming: SuperSport
UK: TV: Sky Sports2. Live Streaming: Sky Network
USA: Willow TV
