Asia Cup 2018: 3 Reasons Sri Lanka's exit should not surprise you

#1 Lack of a stability in Sri Lanka's team composition

The team's confidence has certainly suffered from the retirement of key players, followed by a string of losses

Less than a decade years ago, Sri Lanka had the services of greats like Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas, Tilakaratne Dilshan, and Thilan Samaraweera - to name a few. The retirement of Mahela and Sanga with the 2015 World Cup, followed by Dilshan's forced retirement - brought an end to that era.

Though Sri Lanka still has players like Lasith Malinga, Upul Tharanga, Angelo Matthews and Thisara Perera from that golden era - the fact is that most of them are nearing the end of their careers. Around the beginning of this decade, while Sanga and Mahela solidified the batting, the seam bowling department was headed by Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara, while Murali, Rangana Herath, and Ajantha Mendis took care of the spin department.

While Sri Lanka prefers playing Herath only in Tests, Kulasekara - as well as Malinga and Matthews have had to deal with injuries owing to their aging. While Sri Lanka has produced many talented players in the last couple of years, such as Kusal Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Niroshan Dickwella, and Dasun Shanaka - the island nation still has to do a lot in order to achieve their once world-challenging winning form.

---

Send us news tips at [email protected]