IND v SL 2023: Chris Silverwood believes Dasun Shanaka will get an IPL contract after scoring a century in 1st ODI.

Sri Lankan head coach Chris Silverwood said captain Dasun Shanaka has caught the attention of IPL franchises with his spectacular performance in the ongoing tour of India.

Shanaka first got everyone talking about him with his brilliant performance in the T20I series where he scored 45 off 27 balls, 56 off 22 balls and 23 off 17 balls against India. The star all-rounder carried his form into the current ODI series as well.

Chasing 374 for victory in the first ODI in Guwahati, Shanaka, batting at No.6, played some counter-attacking shots to reach his second ODI century (108* off 88 balls).

However, Sri Lanka lost the game by 67 runs, but Shanaka won many hearts and Silverwood is confident of securing an IPL contract in the future even if the IPL 2023 auction goes unsold.

Chris Silverwood said at the post-match press conference in Guwahati: “I think he (Shanaka) has done himself a world of good. He has now put himself on the market. I hope the (IPL) owners will look at him and see what a dynamic cricketer he is. He is the best striker on the ball so I hope he gets his chance.

Asked if Sri Lanka relied too much on Shanaka, the head coach said: “I don’t think we rely (only) on Dasuna. He’s in great form at the moment, so obviously he’s shining.

He continued, “If you see, Pathum (Nissanga) was scoring runs today. I thought the partnership between him and Dhananjaya (De Silva) gave us some momentum when they were together. We have seen through the ages that every person has their hands up and counted at some point.

So, I’m not too worried about it. Obviously, they have to raise their hand more, especially on very good tracks like this, to keep that fight, to build partnerships. So it’s a steady job.”

Silverwood smashed both catches of Virat Kohli, who went on to smash a magnificent century in the match. He also felt Sri Lanka’s lack of bowling discipline in the first ODI against India.
“Obviously, we didn’t get off to the best start,” Silverwood said after the match. If I have to be brutally honest, our discipline was lacking at times in the first ten overs and we let India off to a good start. It is a high scoring ground. India knew they had to get off to a good start and we let them do that.

Silverwood added, “They got the momentum out of it and we had to push back all the time to try and put the brakes on. I think we did that for a while. But when you have a class batting line-up like India, it’s hard to stop them.

He signed off by saying about his team’s poor fielding, “Yes, obviously they are expensive. Moments like this are crucial in a game like this – we knew it was going to be high scoring. We know that if you give a player opportunities like Virat’s, he will take it. That’s what he did today. We know that if you give a player opportunities like Virat’s, he will take it. Today he did just that.