Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva emphasised the importance of the World Test Championship (WTC) after his team decisively defeated Bangladesh by an innings and 78 runs at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), securing their first win of the current cycle. De Silva highlighted that with Sri Lanka playing fewer Tests than most teams, each match feels like a knockout.
鈥淭he WTC is like other World Cups 鈥 a lot of matches are like knockouts for us,鈥 de Silva said after the victory. 鈥淲e鈥檝e talked about how we win when we make the fewest mistakes, and we need those wins to get those extra points. In the last cycle, we made a few mistakes, and that鈥檚 what cost us. Hopefully, we can correct that this cycle.鈥
Sri Lanka, scheduled for only a two-match series in this WTC cycle, depends on the 鈥減ercentage of points won鈥 system to stay in contention for a top-two finish. De Silva noted how the WTC has shifted his players鈥 mindset.
鈥淚t鈥檚 become a competitive trophy. We鈥檝e even started thinking about our run rates in light of what鈥檚 happening. The Championship is a great thing for Test cricket,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e saw last time how well South Africa did and how they performed well recently, and they deserved to win it. They hadn鈥檛 won an ICC trophy, and the Test Championship meant a lot to them. As a country, they can value that highly.鈥
Win And Wait For SL
Despite Sri Lanka鈥檚 high Test ambitions, their schedule shows a gap until May 2026 for their next Test match, posing a challenge for their red-ball specialists.
鈥淲e only have domestic matches,鈥 de Silva said. 鈥淩ight now there鈥檚 a One-day tournament, and after that, there will be a three-day tournament. There鈥檚 also the National Super League. That鈥檚 how we鈥檒l have to keep our form. Unfortunately, there are no Tests. We鈥檝e made requests to SLC to play more Tests. I think they are talking about it with other teams. Even if we can play three or four extra Tests, we鈥檒l be able to continue the good things we鈥檙e doing.鈥
De Silva also discussed the team鈥檚 strategic evolution in the series against Bangladesh. Besides scoring quickly, Sri Lanka鈥檚 bowlers aimed to build pressure by delivering more maiden overs, a specific focus area for the team.
鈥淲henever we come into a Test series, we have some key performance indicators,鈥 he explained. 鈥淥ne of the things we analysed this time was that our maiden percentage needed to be higher. So that鈥檚 what we planned to do. We have to keep some pressure on the opposition in Tests, in order to get some wickets at the other end. I think our bowlers did that very well.鈥
(With inputs from IANS)