COLOMBO: Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews gave his backing on Tuesday to spin bowler Tharindu Kaushal despite a ban for one of his bowling actions, raising the prospect of him being selected for the upcoming Test series against the West Indies.

The International Cricket Council has banned Kaushal’s way of bowling a “doosra” — a ball delivered with an off-spinner’s action but which spins away from a right-handed batsman — because it exceeds the level of allowed elbow flexion. However, the ICC cleared the 22-year-old Kaushal to bowl his stock ball, the off spin.

Mathews said that he and the team management hoped to rectify Kaushal’s doosra action and have it cleared as well. The two-Test series against the West Indies starts on Oct. 14.

“We strongly believe that Tharindu Kaushal is a very valuable player in the side. There is no problem with his off spin and we hope to rectify his doosra and have it cleared as well,” Mathews told a news conference.

“We have a lot of trust in him.”

Both teams are in transition after the retirement of many experienced players.

Jason Holder, 23, leads the West Indies in a Test series for the first time and the team is without players like Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Coach Phil Simmons is suspended pending an inquiry after his criticism of selection of the limited-overs side for the Sri Lanka tour. Selection committee member Eldine Baptiste has taken over coaching responsibilities in the interim.

Holder said Simmons’ suspension was a setback for the team, but hoped he returns soon.

“No doubt it is a bit of a setback for us, but at this present stage all we can focus on is cricket,” he said.

“I hope the situation with him is solved, and solved quickly because we’d love to have him back. He’s been a wonderful inspiration to our team thus far.”

Sri Lanka are without a permanent head coach after Marvan Atapattu resigned last month, following successive home test series defeats against Pakistan and India.

Published in Dawn, October 7th , 2015

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