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T20 World Cup: Shane Watson backs Bhanuka Rajapaksa to spoil England's party

The dry wicket in Sydney should help both Sri Lankan spinners Wanindu Hasranga and Maheesh Theekshana

Published: Fri 4 Nov 2022, 9:14 PM

Updated: Fri 4 Nov 2022, 9:20 PM

  • By
  • Anis Sajan

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Sri Lanka's Bhanuka Rajapaksa. — AFP

Sri Lanka's Bhanuka Rajapaksa. — AFP

Even though Australia's hopes rest on Sri Lanka beating England to make it to the semifinals, Shane Watson feels Australia have turned up for this World Cup as they had in the UAE last year.

Barring Marcus Stoinis and today Glenn Maxwell, Australia have not played as a unit and Watson believes they might struggle even if they make it to the semifinals.

Injuries to Aaron Finch and the hard-hitting Tim David has not done them any good and it wont be easy.

But Watson is still keeping his fingers crossed and hoping Sri Lanka will upset England and back Bhanuka Rajapaksa to fire for the Asian champions.

Bhanuka Rajapaksa (left) with Anis Sajan

Bhanuka Rajapaksa (left) with Anis Sajan

Watson has seen Rajapaksha closely in the IPL playing for Puniab Kings last year and how the burly left hander can hit the ball out of the park and fancies him coming good against arch rivals England

Moreover he feels the dry wicket in Sydney should help both Sri Lankan spinners Wanindu Hasranga and Maheesh Theekshana.

I then asked Watson about Virat Kohli who has been accused of bullying the umpires with no-ball demands during the matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The former Australian all-rounder said Kohli is a fierce competitor on the field but at the same time very fair player. It's a very common instinct of an aggressive players to ask for a no ball or a wide ball and he has done it too during his playing days.

And when I asked him about the fake fielding claim by Bangladesh against Kohli, he said ICC has made a rule for fake diving to block the view of the batsman and in this scenario Virat was in no way blocking the batsman's view and he did not find anything unfair in it.

Finally when I asked him to pick one winner out of the potential semifinalists, including the already-qualified New Zealand, he picked India to go the distance and win this World Cup.

Anis Sajan is the vice-chairman of Danube Group



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