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| April 23, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1427 |
‘Maharoof could emerge as quality player’
LONDON, April 22: Sri Lanka are hoping Farveez Maharoof will emerge as an international quality all-rounder during the tour to England.
The 21-year-old has played 10 Tests and 39 One-day Internationals, primarily as a new ball or first change bowler.
He also has plenty of batting ability.
“He is a player that is maturing fast and challenge for him now is to work hard on his bowling and batting,” said skipper Mahela Jayawardene.
Maharoof achieved his highest Test score of 72 against Bangladesh earlier this year and his best figures to date of 4-52 against Pakistan.
England have also had a taste of what Maharoof can do - he bowled a full allocation of 10 overs for figures of 1-19 in 2004 Champions Trophy game between the sides at Rose Bowl.
But he is wary of setting himself over-ambitious targets for tour.
“I'm happy with the way I have been approaching my cricket and on field I have just been playing my natural game.
“I have been keeping things simple –and things are going well at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka believe they can succeed where Australia failed last summer by spiking the guns of England's pace attack in the forthcoming Test series.
Jayawardene insists his team-mates will not be pounded into submission by Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard during the tour which takes in three Tests, a Twenty20 international and a triangular one-day series.
“You will start talking about the ball moving and all that,” said Jayawardene.
“But we shouldn’t worry about that. In England you have some of the best batting wickets which I have batted on – Lord's, for instance, and Trent Bridge, where the third Test is scheduled to be played.
“It's all about how you go there and adjust, and how you apply yourself – it is as simple as that.
“We did that very well in Australia and proved that we can handle pace, bounce and movement.”
Despite their confidence, Jayawardene insists England will be hard to beat on home soil after winning the Ashes last year.
“It's going to be tough, there's no doubt about it,” he said.
“They've got the balance and a strong unit – a couple of all-rounders, a good pace attack and a solid batting line-up.
“They play good cricket. But we should not worry about what they will do to us.
“What we should worry about is how we are going to handle them and control that. We know the players and should work on their strengths and weaknesses.”
The first Test begins at Lord's on May 11. —Agencies
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