Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said his team did not have an ideal preparation for the upcoming tour of India as they were concentrating on fitness and not skills during the break from international cricket.
After the series against Pakistan in August, the Sri Lankan players had a long break and had just started fitness training sessions ahead of the home series against England, scheduled to be played late next month. But the players were asked by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to get ready for the five-match ODI series against India, beginning on November 2.
“The preparation for the series is not that great, we only had a few practice sessions, especially with the weather interrupting. It is not the ideal preparation for a tour of India but we will do our best to prepare ourselves and take it as it comes,” Mathews said.
“We were preparing for the England series because we knew that there were not any tours coming before that. We were focussed a lot on fitness and we just started batting three days ago. We only had a few skill-training sessions. We needed to reach our peak during the England series but now that we’ve been thrown into a challenge, we will try our best to be prepared as much as we can,” Mathew was quoted by The Nation .
He added Kumar Sangakkara was struggling with a back injury and there was a possibility of Niroshan Dickwella keeping wickets.
“Sanga will keep wickets and if Dickwella plays, he will play as a batsman. Sanga is struggling a little bit with his back as well.
“That’s why we need to carry a reserve ‘keeper,” said the 27-year-old all-rounder who scored 3,013 runs at 38.13 and taken 80 wickets in 133 ODIs.
“Sanga is having a small disc problem but it’s nothing serious. He is getting better every day, so hopefully he will be okay. We might have to monitor him during the next few days.”
Mathews said Sri Lanka cannot lower its guard against India despite captain M.S. Dhoni being rested for the first three one-dayers.
“Dhoni is a great strength to the Indian team and if he is rested we have a very good chance but we still cannot be complacent because we all know that India is a difficult place to play cricket,” said Mathews. “We had bad experiences in the past. We will try and play positive and good cricket.”
Sri Lanka has not beaten India in India in a bilateral ODI series. Its best performance has been a 1-1 draw in a three-match series in 1997.
In Dhoni’s absence, Virat Kohli will lead India. Kohli has been a thorn in the Sri Lankan flesh in the recent past.
He has relished the Lankan bowling so much that he enjoys a batting average of 52.65 and a strike rate of 85.16 in ODIs.
Mathews said Sri Lanka is aware of the impact Kohli can make on his team and that they were making a few plans ahead of the series.
“The spinners are having a chat with Piyal Wijetunge (spin bowling coach) and the fast bowlers are having chats with Chaminda Vaas (fast bowling coach) to try and make up plans.
“We have a few more days to plan it out and make plans for each and every batsman.”
The Sri Lankan team will leave for India on Tuesday and commence the tour with a one-day practice game against India A at Mumbai on Oct. 30 before beginning the five-match OneDay International series on Nov. 2 at Cuttack.
