I am a boring batsman: Kumar Sangakkara

The Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman says he may not be a treat to watch as compared to the other more swashbuckling batsmen in the world.

Sri Lanka's stylish batsman and wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara says he may not be a treat to watch when compared to the other more swashbuckling batsmen in the world.

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"I play a different brand of cricket. I am not very aggressive. I play a more boring kind of cricket. So one-day cricket is a challenge," the Sri Lankan vice-captain said.

The 28-year-old left-handed batsman said that his team, who were joint winners in the 2002 edition at home, looked positively at having to play in the qualifiers to make it to the main round of the Champions Trophy.

"What happened before is finished. We are taking the matches very seriously. If we take them as practice matches we won't qualify. This is an opportunity to qualify. We are going to enter into the tournament sooner ," said Sangakkara, who has an one-day average of 35.78 from 4974 runs in 174 matches.

"We are looking at it very positively. Conditions in the subcontinent are good for batting and spinners. We have (Muttiah) Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas. We have many allrounders in our team," he said.

Sri Lanka play Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and West Indies in the qualifying stage. The tournament proper begins October 15.

Their first qualifying match opponent were Bangladesh at Mohali on Saturday.

The Lankans go into the tournament high on confidence after thrashing England 5-0 in their own soil and South Africa 2-0 in Tests at home in the summer but Sangakkara said they were not taking anything for granted. MORE