Top-order batters and finishers in focus as SL, Zimbabwe aim to turn fortunes around

Like cartoon villains hanging in mid-air having just run off the edge of a cliff, both Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe could have big, dramatic drops in their near future.

Sri Lanka bombed their World Cup campaign to finish ninth and failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy in 2025. Zimbabwe are smarting from even bigger failures - first, they did not qualify for last year's ODI World Cup despite being hosts for the qualifying tournament, and, more recently they have fallen short of making it to the upcoming T20 World Cup. This series - three ODIs and three T20Is, all at Khettarama - provides both teams with the opportunity to claw back some credibility.

For Sri Lanka, nothing short of a dominant performance across both series will do. There will be some pressure on new ODI captain Kusal Mendis and new T20I captain Wanindu Hasaranga to begin their tenures on bright notes. Zimbabwe had historically been a challenge that Sri Lanka brushes off, but in recent years these teams have come much closer together largely through Sri Lanka's long-term decline. Since 2017, Zimbabwe have won five of these teams' 11 ODIs, even winning a series. All but three of those matches were played in Sri Lanka. (In T20Is, these teams have not played each other since 2012.)

Zimbabwe are just looking for something to celebrate. They've lost their four most recent ODIs and in the T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier, the losses to Namibia and Uganda which prevented their qualification for this year's big ICC event, will haunt them for some time.

On Khettarama tracks that are likely to be low and slow as usual, here are four questions that could define the contest.

How will Zimbabwe's top order cope?
Since January 2023, no Zimbabwe batter has scored anywhere nearly as heavily as Sean Williams, who produced 720 at an average of 90, and a strike rate of 129. He has not travelled with the team, due to injury though, leaving the likes of captain Craig Ervine, Ryan Burl, and Sikandar Raza to feel the pressure of keeping the batting afloat. Wessly Madhevere is also absent after he breached anti-doping rules.

Can Dilshan Madushanka sustain his excellence?
If there was one silver lining to Sri Lanka's torrid World Cup campaign, it was the 21 wickets provided by left-arm quick Madushanka. Those heroics have since earned him a contract worth more than USD 550,000 with Mumbai Indians, but he remains only a fledgling bowler at international level with 15 ODIs under his belt. He and Dushmantha Chameera - who also bowls at faster than 140kph - are both fit for the ODIs, and if at their best, will pose a serious dual threat with the new ball.

Can Sri Lanka find more urgency with the bat?
While Zimbabwe need substance, many of Sri Lanka's problems in the World Cup had to do with their rate of scoring, with problems around finishing in particular. The new selectors have added Avishka Fernando back into the mix and named Nuwanidu Fernando, and Janith Liyanage in the squad - all batters capable of scoring quickly at the domestic level.

Dasun Shanaka, freshly ousted as captain, is still in the squad too and has been having a decent domestic List A season. He is likely to be the first-choice finisher in the ODIs, with Wanindu Hasaranga still under an injury cloud. Sri Lanka need their boundary hitters to bring the team's scoring rates up to where the best white-ball teams operate.

Can Zimbabwe's bowlers turn their results around in SL?
Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava has six wickets on the island at an average of 23.83, but aside from him, the other bowlers' numbers on in Sri Lanka are unimpressive. Blessing Muzarabani averages 35.40, Raza 56, and Wellington Masakadza 105. Although Zimbabwe won an ODI series in Sri Lanka in 2017, that win had been largely down to their batting. With the square at Khettarama likely to wear as these series go on, we may be in for matches where bowlers chiefly define the outcome.