Sri Lanka eager to test unfamiliar waters

We touched down in South Africa last week not fully knowing what to expect. We have a new coaching and management team, a slightly different team and a new format of the game to experience. Unlike some teams, we have hardly played any Twenty20 cricket at all. All we know is that the pace can be frenetic, the crowds love it and it’s all over in just three hours.

Since arriving, the media has been clamouring for predictions and insights into how the new tournament will pan out. However, all we know is that the best way for us to succeed is to learn fast and quickly adapt ourselves to the new format. We have to learn on our feet and work out for ourselves the best tactics and approaches for our team.

The early signs, though, are encouraging for this competition. There is a palpable excitement and buzz surrounding the tournament here in South Africa, a country that is passionate about its sports and proud to be organizing international tournaments. Already, here, Twenty20 is a firm favourite of the spectators.

Indeed, it is this spectator interest that for me is the most exciting aspect of Twenty20. Clearly, the format has rejuvenated domestic audiences in the countries that now have regular annual tournaments. In England, the Twenty20 finals day seems to be one of the most popular days of a long cricket summer. Amazingly, even our practice games here were sell-outs which was hugely encouraging.

It seems that the intoxicating blend of a family-friendly carnival atmosphere, fast-paced cricket and the world’s best players should be a major hit over the next two weeks. We will have to wait and see how many nail-biting games there are for the tension-lusting television audiences around the world, but I have no doubt that the spectators here are going to have one long party.

We are approaching it all in our usual manner, looking forward to embracing a challenge. We like enjoying our challenges; it gives us the freedom to play at our best. We know, though, that the team has to be ready from ball one in this event. As a team, we can’t feel our way into the tournament and as players we can’t feel our way into our individual roles. We have to be streamlined and ready to execute.

The practice games against South Africa and Pakistan were really useful, giving us a better understanding of how to approach the tournament by allowing some experimentation in terms of our batting and bowling combinations. We won one and lost one but the results were irrelevant to be honest – the practice games are all about fine-tuning your game plans.

Twenty20 scores seem to have declined a little in the past year and I suspect this is because bowlers have developed better strategies than they did at the outset. It is a very harsh format for the bowlers, but they have already adapted. Likewise, the approach of batsmen has evolved with batting not being all about big-hitting. The key will be smart cricket – a phrase we use a lot in the 50-over format - but it’s even more relevant to the shortened version, especially with our mix of accumulators and explosive impact players.

We’ll have to see how the pitches play when the action starts. Some people will have worries about playing so soon after South Africa’s winter. But so far the conditions have been excellent, the pitches offering some pace and bounce, which is ideal for Twenty20. Hopefully, will see some big totals and some fast-scoring.

Now we are all anxious for it all to start. The world’s best players – bar the few that have opted out – are all assembled. We are confident of being able to perform, but we know this is an unforgiving format – one mistake and you can lose a game. No team can be taken for granted. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a thrilling two weeks of cricket.