Lanka wary of English conditions
Sri Lanka will have to adjust quickly to the Test format as well as
different wickets if they are to challenge England in their backyard,
batting coach Marvan Atapattu said Tuesday.
“The biggest challenge is to adjust to English conditions,” Atapattu
said as the bulk of Sri Lankan touring party left for England for a
two-month tour.
Senior players Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, as well as a
few others, will join the squad later after completing their commitments
in the Indian Premier League, a lucrative franchise-owned Twenty20
competition.
The IPL players will hardly get time to acclimatise as they will
arrive just ahead of the second and last practice game against England
Lions from May 19.
With a new skipper in Tillakaratne Dilshan and an overhauled team
management, the task will be cut out for the Sri Lankans against a side
whose last Test outing saw them thrash Australia in the Ashes. Sri Lanka
last held a test series at home against the West Indies in
November-December 2010 but all the three games were ruined by rain.
“We are playing a Test series after a gap of a few months. Winning
the Test series in England is our aim,” Atapattu added.
The Sri Lankans are set to play three Tests, a Twenty20 international
and five one-dayers during the England tour, which begins with a
three-day practice match against Middlesex at Uxbridge from May 14.
The first Test in Cardiff begins on May 26.
“A (Test) win will make it easier for our preparation work for the
one-day and T20 games,” said Atapattu, a former Sri Lankan skipper.
The away side are also without retired spin great Muttiah
Muralitharan who shaped the team’s win in a one-off Test at the Oval in
1998 with a rich haul of 16 wickets.
Sri Lanka are yet to win a Test series in England with their best
result so far being a 1-1 draw in 2006.
It was Muralitharan again who starred for Sri Lanka in that series,
taking eight wickets in the second innings of the second Test at Trent
Bridge to shape a 134-run win for his team.
Atapattu however played down the absence of the spin legend, saying
the tour offered a fine opportunity for fringe players like Farveez
Maharoof and Kaushal Silva to prove their credentials.
Maharoof, currently playing county cricket for Lancashire, made an
impressive start to the season with a hundred on his debut against
Somerset at Liverpool.
Silva, 24, is uncapped but has an impressive first-class average of
45 and has been picked up as a back-up for Prasanna Jayawardene. AFP
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