Sangakkara commends on CB series

Sri Lanka have the ability but the execution has been lacking so far in the CB Series

February 25, 2008

It hasn't been a memorable CB Series for Sri Lanka so far © Getty Images

Thankfully the IPL auction has not been a distraction for the Sri Lankans. Of course, some of us figured in the auction but the overall focus of the team has always remained the CB Series. Unfortunately, though, we seem to have faltered on certain fronts in our campaign. People might just be wondering what has happened to the team that reached the World Cup final.

The only thing that has changed from then is, we are not functioning well as a batting unit, and some of the players are a bit low on confidence - though no one is out of form.

There also seems to be a slight confusion in terms of individual gameplans. But overall the belief and the ability are the same, so it's again a question of finding an individual gameplan that is successful. Indidviduals need to learn their own games better so that they have a successful formula always in mind and fine-tune it to situations they face in the middle.

That ability to formulate a proper gameplan is critical. When you don't function as a batting unit, you lose wickets early, and that puts pressure on the middle order. And if the middle-order batters are also struggling a bit, you'll always be putting too much pressure on yourself attempting to come out of that situation. In contrast, when people are high on confidence, whatever the situation they are in, they have an instinctive idea of how to play. That's the sort of belief we should be having in ourselves at the moment. We have the ability; we just have to find a way of executing plans successfully out in the middle.

Personally, I take confidence in the way I am training a day before the game or in the week leading up to the game, and how I'm achieving what I want to achieve in practice. That gives me a lot of satisfaction and in turn confidence. I also believe very strongly in challenging myself in training and doing difficult things, because when you overcome those difficulties, you always have an overwhelming sense of confidence going into games. It doesn't guarantee success in games, but at least it gives you the base and the confidence needed to go out there and perform. That is the first step always.

Sri Lanka, as a team, have historically had the label of being unpredictable, but we are trying to change that and become consistent, so people know exactly what they are going to get from us - a very, very professional performance every single day.