Sri Lankan pacers, Lasith Malinga and Angelo
Mathews, are not part of the Sri Lanka Test squad announced for the tour
of England.
Mathews is still recovering from a quad muscle
injury due to which he was deprived of a spot in the World Cup Final
and also from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Malinga’s fitness
has been doubtful for the Test match for some time now. He last played
a test match in a home series against India
last year. Even then he did not play all three matches and rested for
the second match. He has played only 30 Tests in a period of seven years
and has been scarcely used by Sri Lanka to keep him fresh for the
shorter formats of the game in which he has proved himself more
effective.
Sri Lanka’s 16-member squad has four pace
bowlers including Dilhara Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep and
Chanaka Welegedara. Nuwan Kulasekara, who played in Sri Lanka’s prior Test series against West Indies, is not part of the squad for the tour of England.
While Lakmal has intimidated opponents in his debut Test series against the West Indies, uncapped Pradeep is known to have a hurling action similar to Malinga’s. Only one bowling all-rounder is in the squad.
Fresh faces int he squad include Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh
Chandimal. Both are considered promising batsmen and have already
played One Day matches on the international stage. Chandimal made his
debut in an ODI tri-series in Zimbabwe last year as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
Tillakaratne Dilshan has been appointed the
new Skipper of the squad for the tour of England, while vice-captain for
the Sri Lankan team is yet to be decided. This will be Dilshan’s first
assignment as a Captain in an overseas Test tour after the retirement
of the magical right arm off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
The departure timing for the tour has been a
matter of debate because eleven Sri Lankan’s, including former Skipper
Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, are currently playing in the
Indian Premier League. The English squad has similar scheduling
conflicts, with seven of their members playing in the same league.
Earlier, Sri Lanka Cricket had asked players
to report to Colombo by 5 May, 2011, five days before the team’s
departure for England. The move was criticised by Muralitharan, who said
that the players had earlier expected to play in the IPL until 20 May.
The finalized Sri Lankan squad is as follows:
1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Tharanga
Paranavitana, 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Mahela
Jayawardene, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Dinesh Chandimal, 8 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 9 Thisara Perera, 10 Suraj Randiv, 11 Ajantha Mendis, 12 Rangana Herath, 13 Dilhara Fernando, 14 Chanaka Welegedara, 15 Suranga Lakmal, 16 Nuwan Pradeep
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