Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews believes it is time to stop talking of former batting greats Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara after the defeat in the first Test against New Zealand.
Since Jayawardene stepped down from Test cricket in 2014 and Sangakkara followed him into retirement earlier this year, the Sri Lankans have struggled.
It was a harsh lesson for the new-look line-up with Kithuruwan Vithanage playing his ninth Test and Udara Jayasundera, Milinda Siriwardana, Kusal Mendis and Dushmantha Chameera having only nine Tests between them.
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Jayawardene retired after 149 Tests in which he averaged 49.84 with the bat while the mercurial Sangakkara retired after scoring 12,400 runs at 57.40 in 134 Tests.
Skipper Mathews said that was a lot of experience to lose, but he believed the new brigade will develop into a quality side.
“They showed a lot of guts, they didn’t want to give up even though one played his debut and others were playing their second or third game,” he said after the match.
“The quality is there in the dressing room, it’s just the mindset that needs to shift around. We’ve always talked about not having Sangakkara and Mahela in the team. It’s history and we’ve just got to move on with it, take responsibility and try and score runs.”
Both Mathews and his New Zealand counterpart Brendon McCullum agreed Sri Lanka had the upper hand when they won the toss and bowled first on a wicket that was helpful for the seamers. Mathews lamented that his bowlers were unable to make the most of the favourable conditions.
“After winning the toss on a green wicket, I expected a lot more from the bowlers. We bowled a lot of loose stuff,” he said.
“We lost our way in the first couple of sessions and we let them off the hook. We were also way too cautious in our first innings batting.
“As a batting unit we need to score runs to give our bowlers a chance. Scoring 290-300 is not enough on these tracks,” said Mathews.
Mathews said he envisaged improvement, but it would take time.