Ahmedabad, Oct. 9: After the win in their opening match against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene said they could now think of rotating a few players for the qualifying match against Zimbabwe, to be played on Tuesday at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera.
"Everyone’s fit. We might think of rotating a few guys. We haven’t finalised that yet, and we’ll do that after we have a good look at the wicket. We don’t have too many options, only 14 of us here, so depending on what the team needs, we’ll think about it," said Sri Lanka’s skipper on Monday.
Middle order batsman, Jayawardene, 29, knows that a win will ensure a berth in the main stage of the Champions Trophy.
He said, "A win is going to be our first goal. If we have two wins we’re probably through. We don’t think about where we want to be in the group, that’s a matter for later. We want to win everything that we play. You have to play good cricket and make sure that you win all your games. That is the way we want to play."
Asked about the wicket, he said, "I’ve just had a glimpse of the pitch. I didn’t have a chance to see it properly. We’re not going to think about the opposition we’re playing. What we’re thinking about is how we can improve the Sri Lankan team’s game."
The Lankan bowlers did not have a good day against Bangladesh, giving away 21 extras, including 16 wides. "We were not that disciplined in the bowling department in the last game. There were a lot of extras, and specifically Dilhara didn’t get things going early on. But he was a matchwinner for us in England. We have to back him 100%, it was just a one-off game (against Bangladesh). "
"All the bowlers did put in the early effort but we relaxed a bit towards the middle of the game where we knew we were cruising. It’s an important tournament and we don’t want to tax ourselves. We’ll look into the number of extras we gave and that’s an area we’ll definitely rectify. "