A rare sight of rival captains Dimuth Karunaratne and Babar Azam inspecting the Galle Stadium pitch ahead of today’s first cricket Test

Niroshan Dickwella under pressure to perform gets some words of advice from Sri Lanka assistant and batting coach Naveed Nawaz during practice at Galle yesterday

• Pakistan – an opposition with a different flavour

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Galle

Sri Lanka and Pakistan who meet in a two-Test series starting at the Galle International Cricket Stadium today have one thing in common. Both teams are coming into this series having played the number one ranked Test side Australia on their own home turf.

While Pakistan failed to beat Australia in the best of three Tests losing the series 1-0, Sri Lanka went one better by winning the second Test to draw the two-match series one-all. Beating a side like Australia is no easy task and Sri Lanka having done that will start the series slightly ahead as favourites. 

Also, they are playing the Tests at home which gives them an added advantage. Further, the first Test is at Galle, where Sri Lanka had got accustomed to having played back to back Tests against Australia at this venue.

With so much in favour of the home team there cannot be any loose ends left to allow Pakistan to capitalise on and take advantage of over the next five days. True, they are a far better equipped side than the Australians at tackling spin as they too have some world class batters in the calibre of captain Babar Azam (ranked 4), Azhar Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shan Masood, and bowlers Shaheen Afridi (ranked 4), Hasan Ali and recalled leg-spinner Yasir Shah who was a force to be reckoned with when he first came to Sri Lanka in 2015 capturing 24 wickets (19.33) in 3 Tests. 

He mesmerized the Lankan batsmen to a ten-wicket defeat at Galle with seven wickets in the second innings. Pakistan has not toured Sri Lanka since then and a wait of seven years is a long time for a team to be touring a country. Survivors of that tour are Shan Masood, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Azhar Ali and Yasir Shah. 

Babar Azam, the captain will be playing a Test match in Sri Lanka for the first time, so will many members of his 18-member squad. They will bank on the experience of those who had toured here before to get first-hand information of conditions and the pitches.

“When you go to play in a country and some matches have happened before that then you have an idea what the conditions are like,” said Babar at the post-match media conference. “We have been helped by that and we did our own study on the conditions as we are coming here after a long time. 

“We have prepared ourselves for these wickets. Galle is a typical spinning wicket and that’s what we saw in the series against Australia. It spins a lot and behaves differently on the fourth day, so I think spin will dominate.” 

“Any team would be difficult on their home conditions as they know the conditions. They have some experienced spinners in their side, so we are looking forward to play good cricket against them. Sri Lanka is a tough team to beat on home conditions. Sri Lankan people love Test cricket and we saw that the ground was full during the Australia-Sri Lanka matches. We are also looking forward to play in front of this wonderful crowd.”

Sri Lanka are looking at affecting three changes to the side that beat Australia by an innings here five days ago. Two of them are due to the return of Covid affected players who have recovered – middle order batsman Dhananjaya de Silva and fast bowler Asitha Fernando. The third is Oshada Fernando replacing Pathum Nissanka as Dimuth Karunaratne’s opening partner. 

Nissanka contracted COVID during the second Test, but was named in the squad of 18 for the series. It is learnt that he has to be cleared medically before he can play. Oshada Fernando has twice played the role of COVID Sub – first when Angelo Mathews was tested positive during the first Test against Australia and again when Nissanka was tested positive during the second Test. De Silva’s return means that Kamindu Mendis who scored a 50 on his Test debut will have to sit it out.  

“We’re thinking of going with a two-two combination. We’ll have another look at the wicket and decide on our bowling combination,” said Sri Lanka captain Karunaratne. “In the previous matches, we only played one. He bowled less than 15 overs in the match. That’s the area we’re concerned. If we can get a spinner in that place, he can do something else. But with the breeze, it’s a different story. However, we’ll have a look at tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes.”

If Sri Lanka decide to go with two fast bowlers Asitha Fernando and Kasun Rajitha, then one of the spinners will have to be dropped most probably Maheesh Theekshana who made his Test debut against Australia in the second Test.

Despite having a poor match against Australia, Niroshan Dickwella retains his position as wicket-keeper. 

“We saw a few mistakes from Dikka in the last match but that was due to the condition of the wicket. Dikka has been keeping wickets well in the past and also come with good contributions in the late order. We just cannot gauge a player by one match and we’re going to give him another chance. On the other hand, Chandimal is in the runs as a wicket-keeper. So Dikka will feel the pressure,” said Karunaratne. 

“Pakistan are a different team to the Aussies, good against the spin. Previously, they have done pretty well at Test level. We have to do our basics well if we want to keep them under control. Hopefully, we’ll have a good series against them.”

The series is part of the ICC World Test Championship. 

Lanka-Pakistan second Test moved to Galle