"This is our first team": Sri Lanka's breakout stars are here to stay insists Danushka Gunathilaka

The 3-0 T20 whitewash of Pakistan came with a number of senior players absent due to security fears in the team's first visit since the 2009 Lahore attack

Danushka Gunathilaka insists the Sri Lanka players who delivered the 3-0 T20 whitewash of Pakistan deserve to be considered as first choice despite the absence of several senior players for the tour.

Captain Dimuth Karunaratne, Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews were among 10 players missing for the team's first tour of Pakistan since the 2009 attack in Lahore which left eight people dead.

After losing the one-day international series 2-0, an experimental Sri Lanka side rallied and beat Pakistan - ranked No.1 in the ICC rankings - in all three T20 matches.

Sri Lanka now travel to Australia for three more T20s against next year's World Cup hosts and Gunathilaka says the current squad deserve to keep their places.

"A lot of people in Pakistan said this is our second team," he told ESPNcricinfo. "It's not our second team at all, only a few players didn't come. Kusal [Perera] was injured, Angelo [Mathews] was not in the last T20I squad.

"If you're talking about T20Is, only [Niroshan] Dickwella and [Lasith] Malinga played the last T20 among the players that didn't come. So how can you say this is a B team? You can't ask for more. We beat the No. 1 team in the world. This is our first team."

The 28-year-old, who scored 80 runs in the series, added: "I don't think some of the senior players will go to Australia now because of this performance. And so the senior players might be scared for their places, and some of them might come [for a Test series]. 

"At least 12-13 players from this side might go to Australia, that's what the selectors said. Those players that came and did well, they have to give them another chance. If not, it's very unfair.

"Those who didn't come, as Asantha [de Mel, the selector] was saying, their place is just not sure anymore in the team. After all, these players performed better than the Sri Lanka side did in the New Zealand series."

Among the breakout stars were batsman Kshade Fernando, who scored an unbeaten 78 in the third match; highest run-scorer of the series Bhanuka Rajapaksa; and leading wicket-taker Wanindu Hasaranga, the leg spinner who leaves Pakistan with eight scalps.