Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara could unleash versatile, young spinner Ajantha Mendis on an England team that has had little experience of playing the talented bowler. The two teams meet in the semifinal of the Twenty20 World Cup Thursday on a slow surface that could be well suited to spin. Australia and Sri Lanka both qualified for the semifinals after Australia beat the West Indies by six wickets Tuesday. Meanwhile Australia will play defending champion Pakistan at the same ground Friday. Mendis, who bowls a mixed-up collection of orthodox off-spin and well disguised leg-breaks was left out of Sri Lanka's reshuffled line-up for Tuesday's dramatic last-ball win over India – a result that sent it through. Batsmen internationally have been getting used to reading Mendis's various deliveries but the English, who have only faced the 25-year-old once in last year's Champions Trophy, have hardly encountered him. “We'll have to have a think about that, how that works with our combinations and batting. We would love him to play. I think he's a top quality spinner and England probably played him once,” said Sangakkara. “It's a realistic possibility but we've got other spinners, even part-timers who are pretty good,” he said. Another Sri Lankan threat to England's powerful batting line-up comes in the form of Lasith Malinga, whose slingy action produces deliveries that can skid-on and keep surprisingly low. “A few of us have played against them. But it is obviously a slight concern,” said England captain Paul Collingwood. “Quite a lot of the guys haven't played against the angle of Malinga, his skiddiness, his change-ups – and not many of us have played much against Mendis,” he added. The short format does not allow for players to get their ‘eye in' against a new bowler so Collingwood is encouraging his players to watch video of the Sri Lankans. “When guys are bowling 24 balls at you, you can't give yourself six or seven to get yourself in against them,” he said. “That's one of the things we need to make sure we overcome; we need to watch as much footage as possible and talk about it between ourselves. “That's another great thing, we are communicating really well. Players who have played against them are passing tips on to the other guys and I think that's helping a lot.” Sangakkara though is hoping that the slower-paced surface will give Sri Lanka the edge. “We would like to think so, we've got a lot of variation in our bowling attack. We will try to exploit that in these conditions but we've got to think of all the angles,” he said. Former stars lash India team Former Indian cricket greats lashed the current team Wednesday after its exit from the World Twenty20, blaming weakness against the bouncer and the poor standard of the IPL. India, which won the title in 2007, failed to win a Super Eights match in the last two editions despite being the world's top-ranked side in Test cricket and No. 2 in the 50-overs game. Both the tournaments in 2009 and 2010 were held within a week of the completion of the cash-rich IPL where some of the world's top stars feature in a six-week schedule of T20 cricket – and post-game partying. Sourav Ganguly said Dhoni's men did not deserve to make the semifinals and blamed the IPL as one of the reasons for the team's disappointing performance. “The IPL is a domestic tournament and the standard is much lower than a world event where you are up against quality batsmen and bowlers,” said Ganguly. “You don't expect to go to World Cup semifinals if you play cricket like the way the team has played in the Caribbean.” Ganguly said he hoped the selectors would take a hard look at the non-performers, including senior batsman Yuvraj Singh, who managed just 74 runs in five matches at an average of 18.50. Batting great Sunil Gavaskar said India was let down by an apparent weakness against short-pitched bowling. “India's lack of adaptability has been a disappointment,” the former opener, who was the first batsman to reach the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, wrote in the Hindustan Times. “What is baffling is that even though most batsmen showed a distinct sense of discomfort against the short ball during the World T20 in England last year, they were picked again for an event on even bouncier pitches in the Caribbean.”
