The First Test Match between Sri Lanka and England will begin tomorrow at the Galle International Stadium. It’s an incredibly short tour of Sri Lanka for England with just the two Test Matches to be played! While the 1st Test begins tomorrow at Galle, the 2nd Test is on the 3rd of April at the P Sara Oval in Colombo.
For England, it’s all about showing the Cricketing World that they do deserve the No.1 Test Ranking. It’s not going to be easy considering that England were whitewashed in the UAE 0-3 against a spin-oriented Pakistan attack. Sri Lanka will be similar for the English boys with the pitches here expected to be sluggish and helpful for the spinners. So it will be another big Test for England against quality spinners.
Sri Lanka after quite some time will be back playing on their home turf. The Lankans have been busy playing lots of cricket of late and in the Asia Cup, they did look like a jaded outfit. It will be the first time that Mahela Jayawardene will leading Sri Lanka in Test Matches in his second innings as the Captain.
The advantage will be with Sri Lanka but their batsmen need to score big to set up the matches for their spinners.
Match Timings :
The Sri Lanka Vs England, 1st Test Match at Galle will begin at 10:00 local/04:30 GMT/10:00 IST
Squads for the Sri Lanka Vs England, 1st Test at Galle (March 26-30):
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thilan Samaraweera, Dinesh Chandimal (Wicket Keeper), Prasanna Jayawardene (Wicket Keeper), Ranganna Herath, Suraj Randiv, Chanaka Welegedara, Tharanga Paranavitana, Dhammika Prasad, Chamara Silva and Suranga Lakmal
England: Andrew Strauss (Captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Peiterson, Ian Bell, Matt Prior (Wicket Keeper), Steve Davies (Wicket Keeper), Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Monty Panesar, Tim Bresnen, Graeme Swann, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel and James Tredwell
Match Officials
Ground Umpires : Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and Rod Tucker (Australia)
Third Umpire : Bruce Oxenford
Match Referee: Javagal Srinath
