Alastair Cook and his ‘Poms’ have sour memories of a team from South Asia landing there and beating them in all formats. The rivalry will be rebooted on 19th May when the three-match Test series commences at Headingley, Leeds.
England’s Test team will compete on home soil for the first time since last summer’s Ashes victory and will face Sri Lanka, the last team to beat them in their own backyard, two years ago as the Islanders recorded their maiden Test series victory on UK soil.
Since then, lots of things have changed around both these teams, England have become a dominant force in limited-overs cricket and transformed into a world-class unit in red-ball cricket while Sri Lanka have lost a few of their key players in Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who bore the brunt of the batting and no doubt added weight and advice Angelo Mathews on the field. Added to this, they have been losing heavily in all formats of the game.
The historical two-Test series in 2014 was by far the ‘Best’ victory for Sri Lanka in white clothing outside Asia. After a tense opening match which ended in a draw at the home of Cricket, Lord’s, the visitors won a classic second match with just one ball to spare at Headingley to cap off a scintillating tour to England.
England vs Sri Lanka Test Series 2016 – Let’s Talk Numbers
This time around, the Englishmen are looking to take their revenge on the Islanders as the leader of their bowling attack, James Anderson was very confident ahead of the series, “If we build on how we played in the winter then there’s no doubt we can win 3-0.”
Fourth-ranked England will aim to narrow the gap with third-ranked Pakistan with a series win while seventh-ranked Sri Lanka will target moving ahead of sixth-ranked South Africa in the Test rankings.
Recent Form
England had an impressive away series victory over South Africa in January-February, defeating the struggling Proteas 2-1. All-rounder Ben Stokes smashed the fastest 250 in the history of Test cricket in a breathtaking innings while Stuart Broad was the pick of the England bowlers capturing 18 wickets in four Tests but has the worst bowling average of 46.14 against Sri Lanka. By far, currently their best batsman Joe Root was also a standout, stroking 386 runs with one century and three half-tons.
Sri Lanka’s last Test tour to New Zealand in the month of Christmas last year was a disaster despite some of the younger players in the likes of Dushmantha Chameera and Kusal Mendis proving their metal. Chameera was exceptional in the second Test but none of their batsmen were able to manage a century throughout the two games which they eventually lost. Dinesh Chandimal was solid at No.4 but how will he cope up with the responsibility of wicket-keeping and batting at the top order?
Team Compositions
Sri Lanka – The loss of Dhammika Prasad is a major blow to the Lankan plans. Last time Sri Lanka played at this venue when he ripped apart the English batting unit taking a match-bag of 6 scalps. In his absence, Shaminda Eranga who took the final wicket in 2014 might get the nod to partner the exciting fastest bowler in the island nation, Dushmantha Chameera and the weary and injury-scarred 140k + Nuwan Pradeep.
Kaushal Silva will reunite with Dimuth Karunarathne but the real dilemma for the selectors would be for the No.3 position. Will they be bold enough to try out young Kusal Mendis at No.3 after scoring two half-centuries in the warm-up games or will they once again go to the tried and tested Lahiru Thirimanne? The debate on this is divided.
It will be interesting to see how they slot in all-rounder Dasun Shanaka who hit a well-calculated century against Leicestershire last week and replace out-of-form Milinda Siriwardena.
Probable XI – Dimuth Karunarathne, Kaushal Silva, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, Rangana Herath, Dushmantha Chameera, Shaminda Eranga, Nuwan Pradeep.
England – The England selectors named a 12-man squad for the first Test handing a debut to James Vince at No.5 and will replace James Taylor, who unfortunately retired from cricket due to a heart problem last month. Alex Hales and Nick Compton will get another chance to prove themselves at the top of the order while Steven Finn is the most likely to be the third seamer keeping young Jake Ball out of the playing XI.
Probable XI – Alastair Cook, Alex Hales, Nick Compton, Joe Root, James Vince, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, James Anderson.
Pitch and Weather Conditions
Reports from England indicates that the weather have been good last couple of days and the shining sun will help the tourists on a greenish track which will assist the faster bowlers early on but will be much suited for the batsmen later in the Test match. Headingley is renowned for the bowlers who can hit the deck hard. If there is a hint of spin, Sri Lanka may have a huge say on day 4 and 5?
Prediction
England will no doubt start as the favourites but the lion-hearted Lankans led by Captain Marvel, Angelo Mathews can cause another upset if their young players can turn potential into performance on this tour and show what they’ve got.
