Ratnayake: Sri Lanka’s win towards England ‘actually large’ for cricket within the nation

Sri Lanka blew their hosts away by seven and eight wickets respectively to come back again from 1-0 down and hand England their first T20I collection defeat by a facet apart from Australia since 2010.

Given that Sri Lanka are ranked six locations decrease than England and Pakistan two spots behind South Africa within the format, the outcomes have fuelled hopes that the hole between the top-ranked nations and the remainder might be closed. Ratnayake’s prediction that his facet’s victory will make folks sit up and take discover in Sri Lanka can solely assist the trigger.

“It’s really huge because when we left Sri Lankan shores, they didn’t think that we would do so well. Everybody thought maybe you might win one out of six. But I just told the girls that we are here not just to play and participate, we are here to win. I think it is going to be huge there. The awareness of girls playing and wanting to be people like Chamari and the likes would be huge.”

Athapaththu had been instrumental within the win at Chelmsford additionally, her brutal half-century serving to mow down one other meagre goal after England have been bowled out inside 20 overs for the primary of two successive video games. Her scintillating type this 12 months – she has two unbeaten centuries and 4 half-centuries throughout white-ball codecs in 2023 – has solely emphasised Athapaththu’s place because the lynchpin of her facet, however Ratnayake was happy that others had contributed to their newest victory too.

“It’s huge,” Ratnayake mentioned of Athapaththu’s affect on the workforce. “But our challenge is to win without her. I saw the others sort of stepping into it as well. We’ve got some good players, but to have another Chamari would be a freakish outcome in the future.

“That’s the way in which we play again residence. Sometimes I hold Chamari with me and we play matches with out her, and we see the place we stand towards good opposition, and that is a problem for the longer term. It’s understanding nicely.

“You’ll be surprised, even the smallest can hit sixes now. So we are there, but it’s a collective thing, it’s a cohesive thing where everybody gets together and works as a team.

“We know the place we might be and we are able to see the image and that is how we’re right here and that is what we got here for. We spoke of enjoying cricket for moments like this, for excursions like this.”

Ratnayake also attributed practice matches against men’s sides to helping his players’ development, but he highlighted a change in mindset as critical.

“I recognised what we have to do and created an atmosphere which was a studying atmosphere the place they have been free to precise themselves in a fearless method as a result of I noticed them enjoying cricket in a really fearful method,” he said. “When they began to play like that, we noticed some good issues popping out. It was a difficult atmosphere the place they realized quite a lot of issues.”

A fearless approach is precisely what Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, asked of his players when he took charge last year. He even applied the philosophy to selection for Sri Lanka’s visit, opting to rest some senior players to test younger, less experienced ones at international level.

Even after the loss to Sri Lanka, Lewis stood by the approach, saying it was about “attempting to present folks alternatives who’ve been sat on the sting of our squad or simply exterior our squad, to attempt to study what they’re able to beneath strain”.

While England will welcome again star allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt and opener Tammy Beaumont for the three-match ODI leg beginning in Durham on Saturday, that collection might hinge considerably on whose braveness wavers first.