That 2007-2014 team might have been Sri Lanka’s best ever, making no less than five World Cup final appearances (three in T20Is and two in ODIs) before eventually winning the 2014 T20 title.

The first task is to climb into the top three of the ICC rankings, Asalanka said ahead of the series against New Zealand. In the T20Is, where the teams play first, Sri Lanka are ranked No. 8. In the ODIs, despite not having qualified for next year’s Champions Trophy, they are curiously slightly better, and are ranked No. 6. They need to make progress. on both fronts, according to Asalanka, who has been captain of both formats since August this year.

“We need to move up in the rankings because that shows we are winning consistently,” he said. “Our goal is to climb to the top three of the rankings. If we win consistently, we won’t be in the spotlight when we go to the ICC tournaments.

“We would have played against good teams and won, like we did in 2014 and before, when we reached the semi-finals easily. We hope to get back to that level. It is important to play very well from now on.” one tour at a time.”

“We only started winning a few games in a row,” Asalanka said. “It’s the same team that played. Until the basics of our cricket improve a bit, we will try to play the best eleven. But we do have a big plus, which is that the players on the bench also have a chance, and they performed well before they went back to the bench.

“We always hope to play with our best XI. This also increases our bench strength because then they know how well you have to play to get a place in that XI. And the players in the that we have improved that situation recently. Hopefully over the course of a year we can develop 15/16 very strong players.”