Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene says that the Boxing Day Test against Australia at MCG and the New Year Test at SCG will be massive occasions for his side.
The national cricket team left for Australia last night amidst lot of expectations. India and Australia are the only places Sri Lanka have not won a Test Match and given some of the problems in Australian cricket, many believe the Sri Lankans have a good opportunity to set the record straight this time around.
None of the current Sri Lankan cricketers have been involved in a Boxing Day Test or the New Year Test in Sydney. The Boxing Day Test is the biggest in the Australian sporting calendar and will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which can host 110,000 spectators.
Jayawardene, who made his Test debut in 1997 is yet to play a Test Match in those two historical ground and said he is looking forward for the moment. Sri Lanka last played a Boxing Day Test in 1995 when Arjuna Ranatunga was in-charge.
“It’s a big occasion for our guys, including me. I haven’t played a Test Match in Melbourne or Sydney. There’s a great atmosphere in those venues,” Jayawardene told journalists at Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters on Sunday.
“The guys need to lift their games and do well. When you are playing a top opposition like Australia we need to lift our game. It’s all about pride. We want to give them a good game and it’s a great occasion for us. Batsmen will have to come up with plans to adjust and bowlers need to come up with plans as to how they are going to attack their strong batting line up,” Jayawardene added.
Sri Lanka play a three day warm up game in Canberra and will move to Hobart where the first Test will be played from the 14th of December onwards.
“The conditions will be different and we need to adapt quickly and come up with a game plan. Australia are playing good cricket and at the end of the day it depends on how you cope with pressure.”
“I think each player has to draw up a game plan how he is going to adapt to the wickets in Australia. We gave some of those challenges to players during the New Zealand series as well. From one wicket to another conditions will change in Australia. We have to take up that challenge and play well as a unit.”
The national team left for Australia with some sense of disappointment as they lost the second Test against New Zealand at P. Sara Oval with the New Zealand quicks exposing a few weak areas in the batsmen. “We had a good series against New Zealand and we made a few mistakes in the last game and we got penalized for that. One of things that we will discuss lead up to the series is to reduce our mistakes. That’s something we have to address and at the same time we have to work harder and get used to conditions as soon as possible.”
