New Delhi, Oct. 2: Kumara Sangakkara, the stylish southpaw wicketkeeper from Sri Lanka, was at his elegant best as he fielded questions regarding the upcoming Champions Trophy and the qualification rounds, here on Monday.

Now a senior member in the side, Sangakarra has almost unobtrusively risen to the higher ranks of world cricket.

A devastatingly fluent batsman, Sangakarra is easily one of the best wicketkeeper-batsman in contemporary cricket but does not bracket himself with Dhoni or Gilchrist. "I am in a totally different mould. I play the more measured and boring form of cricket."

Here as part of the Lankan team who were joint winners of the Champions Trophy held at home in 2002, Sangakarra looked at the qualification rounds in a positive light. "We are looking at the qualification rounds as serious and much-needed match practice. As the series back home (with India and South Africa) was washed out, we hope to enter the tournament (after qualifying) with some good match practice under our belt."

Not dwelling too much on the disastrous 1-6 thrashing in India on their previous tour, Sangakarra said: "We were in a rebuilding phase that time. We also took time to adjust to the super-sub and powerplay rules. But all that is behind us.

"We have had an excellent few months and our recent tour to England, where we won the ODI series 5-0, has really given us a lot of confidence."

When asked about his team’s chances, Sangakarra said: "We are not alien to the conditions here. Our batting has grown leaps and bounds with Mahela (Jayawardene), Sanath (Jayasuriya), Upul (Tharanga) all in good form.

"We have a good crop of young fast bowlers in Dilhara (Fernando), Lasith (Malinga) and Farveez (Maharoof). Also Murali and Vaas are always there. We have an excellent mix of youth and experience going and we do fancy our chances in this tournament."