The first Test of the Sri Lanka-England series will begin in this beautiful port town from Monday.
The England team arrived in Colombo more than two weeks ago. It played two three-day matches and won both.
The whitewash against Pakistan is too hard to forget for England. During a conversation at the Taj Samudra gym, captain Andrew Strauss said that the huge lead time to prepare in Sri Lanka was justified. “The conditions are very different,” he said. When asked if the conditions in the United Arab Emirates were similar, he said that was not the case. In the UAE, the weather was better.
Even as England was training very hard in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan team was playing one-day matches in Australia and Bangladesh. Asked how playing one-dayers could be a good preparation for a Test match, captain Mahela Jayawardene said that the players had to switch from one form of cricket to another. This was not something new. The team had six Test specialists, while the remaining played all forms of the game.
Sri Lanka had lost the last match played at this venue to Australia, though Jayawardene made a century. The pitch too came in for ICC censure. Asked if Sri Lanka had refrained from asking the curator for a spinner-friendly pitch like last time, Jayawardene said that he had just come into the country and he did not influence the pitch preparations.
After having had a look at the pitch, he said that the curator had made a good pitch. The pitch will have runs for the first three days and will start aiding spin towards day four and five.
Injury concerns
Sri Lanka has replaced injured Angelo Mathews with Chamara Silva. England will be able to use Ravi Bopara only as a batsman because of injury. Stuart Broad survived an injury scare and is available for selection.
The teams (from):
England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Steve Davies, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Monty Panesar, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel and James Tredwell.
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thilan Samaraweera, Dinesh Chandimal, Prasanna Jayawardene, Rangana Herath, Suraj Randiv, Chanaka Welegedara, Tharanga Paranavitana, Dhammika Prasad, Chamara Silva and Suranga Lakmal.
Umpires: Asad Rauf and Rod Tucker; Third umpire: Bruce Oxenford. Match Referee: Javagal Srinath.
Match starts at 10 a.m. IST
