Short and thin people in Sri Lanka cannot hit 'power hitting' shots, it's not in their genes - Tillakaratne Dilshan

Former Sri Lanka cricket team captain and veteran player Tillakaratne Dilshan has commented on recent trends in cricket and the recent performance of Pawan Wickramasinghe. The conversation held with him is below.

Question: The Twenty20 (T20) format, which typically saw targets around 200 runs, has now reached the 300-run mark, and One Day International (ODI) matches are seeing levels like 450 runs. With this change, what kind of challenge do teams truly face? Specifically, how should teams adapt now?

Answer: Unfortunately, due to this concept of 'Power Hitting,' many technical qualities in cricket have been lost. This is because everyone now wants to hit sixes through power hitting. A player who previously hit a six within the 70-meter boundary is now being trained to hit 100 meters. However, our players do not inherently possess such a strong physique or genetic ability.

Our players' genetics lean towards a style of scoring runs between wickets and hitting boundaries. Players capable of power hitting, like Thisara Perera and Dasun Shanaka, are very rarely produced by us.

However, if everyone now tries to use this power-hitting method, even players who typically hit boundaries won't be able to showcase their natural talent. Players from countries like Australia, England, South Africa, and the West Indies are physically strong. They can easily hit shots beyond the 100-meter mark. Given our physical nature, reaching that level is quite difficult. In the recent past, we have seen several instances where scores against spin bowlers exceeded the 50-run mark.

What we should be able to do is improve what we are accustomed to and get the maximum benefit from it. If we try to do something we can't, no matter how much we try, it will be difficult to reach that goal. Therefore, if we identify the players' identities and extract the maximum possible talent from them, our talented players can have a good journey.

Question: Many are talking about Pawan Wickramasinghe's century in the match against England. What are your thoughts on his innings?

Answer: I watched that match. The unique thing I saw in Pawan's innings was his excellent use of footwork from the very first ball. That's a very good trait. Because recently, our players haven't properly faced spin bowlers. If we look at the last 4-5 years, we had become the team that was most helpless against spin and lost matches by sacrificing wickets.

But the most unique thing I saw in Pawan's batting was his playing by stepping forward (Using the feet). I have never seen any of our players dominate spin bowlers with such confidence before. 90% of his century was about controlling the spin bowlers. After a very long time, I saw a player in Pawan who faced spin bowlers well.