New Sri Lanka head coach Gary Kirsten said he has completed a comprehensive “team audit” in his first week in the role and is preparing the squad for the 2027 ODI World Cup in southern Africa with a data-driven approach.
Kirsten, who officially assumed the two-year contract on April 14, held his first wide-ranging Q&A with local media on Wednesday. He said there was a clear gap between Sri Lanka’s talent pool and its current world rankings.
“I have certainly been spending the first week doing a bit of a team audit, just to get to understand where everyone is at,” he said. “You can’t only rely on talent. You need a good work ethic and a good attitude.”
Kirsten pointed to one metric to illustrate the performance gap. Sri Lanka have played 100 ODIs since the start of 2020 — more than any other Full Member — but have scored only 25 ODI hundreds in that period, compared with 38 for India, 35 for New Zealand and 32 for Australia.
The South African, who coached India to the 2011 ODI World Cup title, said he has moved away from top-down coaching toward presenting “compelling arguments” backed by data, arguing that modern players push back against directives without evidence.
Kirsten said he would travel to Galle immediately to watch the A-team face New Zealand A, part of a broader push for squad depth and player rotation. He noted Sri Lanka lost Eshan Malinga, Matheesha Pathirana and Wanindu Hasaranga to injuries during the recent T20 World Cup and defended the team’s fitness protocols as a “tool for availability”.
With 20-25 ODIs remaining before the 2027 World Cup, Kirsten said he is already assessing whether the squad has the skill mix — air speed, swing, bounce and spin — for southern African conditions.
“Results count, we can’t hide from that,” he said. “We’ll be aiming at progressing and improving.”
