Gunawardene was disappointed that none of his batsmen went on to convert their starts on tracks he felt were better than the ones that are present back home in Sri Lanka. "The biggest disappointment for me was not England Lions scoring 300 or 400 against us but that none of our batsmen used the conditions to get a big hundred," Gunawardene said. "You don't get better tracks even in Sri Lanka. The ball came nicely onto the bat and there wasn't much movement, but our batsmen didn't make use of that opportunity."
In contrast, England Lions batsmen enjoyed a fruitful tournament by managing to score six centuries. Ben Duckett in particular was in blistering form as he smashed a double century, an unbeaten 163 and one half-century in four innings. Gunawardene praised their efforts and felt they were 'as good as their senior national team'.
"The wickets were very flat but the difference was their batters in every game made it big with each one of them getting big scores against us and Pakistan A," he said.
The 39-year-old echoed the Pakistan A coach's sentiments by claiming the batsmen do not have the right mindset to build an innings despite possessing the talent.
"They will get a 30, 40 or a 50 and throw it away. It's all to do with their mindset nothing wrong with their talent," Gunawardene said. "Even the Pakistan A coach said that we had so much of talent but something was not right, which I also agree. The batsmen will have to start learning how to play long innings in domestic cricket. They should know how to build an innings, how to pace an innings, these are little things that our batsmen need to learn and develop and all of them comes from playing domestic cricket."
The coach was also clearly unimpressed with Thisara Perera's performances in the series and felt the all-rounder 'under-performed despite being the most experienced player in the side.' "You have to get more out of someone who has played over 100 ODIs he should have done something at least stop batsmen from scoring whereas he went for 60 and 100 runs," Gunawardene said. "Thisara is only 27 but for someone like him to be considered for the national side he has to perform exceptionally well.
"He can't be performing at the same level as the Under-19 and the rest of the guys. He is so experienced; he has to come up with exceptional performances. You can't be just under-performing."
The likes of Roshen Silva, Mahela Udawatte and Niroshan Dickwella should have converted their starts, according to Gunawardene as he felt the trio looked good when they were out in the middle.
"Roshen Silva looked the one guy who was ready to score the big one, very willing to spend a long time in the middle," he said. "He looked very good and he had the knack for batting longer hours and making big scores but he got a call to return to Sri Lanka. Mahela Udawatte didn't score a lot of runs although he looked good. Niroshan Dickwella got starts but didn't convert them into big ones."
Gunawardene also hailed Dhananjaya de Silva as the 'most impressive' player from the squad but the all-rounder along with four more players had to leave England early in order to play against Australia in the first Test.
"The most impressive of them was Dhananjaya de Silva, the moment he joined the squad I thought he was really good," he said. "[Lakshan] Sandakan looked like one of those spinners who could turn the ball he has first-class experience and he needs to get to next level and play.
"I went to England with two spin-bowling all-rounders for the three four-day matches and when it came to the one-day tri-series the only spinner in my team was Sandakan who was picked for the Sri Lankan Test side for good reasons. I was left with only Sachith Pathirana and Ramith Rambukwella who are spin-bowling all-rounders. I didn't have a specialist spinner in my line-up and I was left with only three fast bowlers and the squad had only 13 guys because several had been called to the national team and others to the Under-19 team that was to tour England."
The coach was also impressed with the side's seam attack and is hoping for Asitha to improve with more experience. "They were very impressive in all the matches, they got the ball to move and the batsmen struggled against them," he said. "Vishwa was quite quick and touched 140. Asitha is just 19 and bowls 135-plus. I saw him in the Under-19 squad but he has to play more first-class matches and get the experience. The best thing about him is that whatever we say he has the capacity to grab, which I think is a good sign."
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