Sri Lanka vs England 1st Test Preview – 2012
Sri Lanka and England ready to kick off short series
Match: Sri Lanka vs. England
Location: Galle, Sri Lanka
Match: March 26th-30th 4:30 GMT
England and Sri Lanka will kick off a very short series in Sri Lanka on Monday knowing that neither team has any time to adapt or adjust to the conditions. The series consists of only two Test matches and odd as it may seem the tour still is extremely significant for both teams.
England is coming here after a 3 match whitewash suffered at the hands of a resurgent Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. The series left question marks over whether they deserve to be the number one ranked Test team in the world. The English will be looking to prove their doubters wrong and increase the gap between them and second placed South Africa.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka is still looking for a series win since star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan retired from Test cricket. This is also Mahela Jayawardene’s first test series since he returned as captain of the Sri Lankan team and he would love to start off with a series win.
Jayawardene knows that if his team are to climb up the international rankings they will have to be consistent from now on. While talking to the media on the eve of the match he said that: “We are mid-table which shows we haven’t been consistent even though we played some really good Test cricket.”
He added: “We had a good summer against England back in June-July [2011] and we won our first Test match in South Africa but in between we haven’t been consistent. It is something that we will try and rectify and be more consistent as a Test-playing nation and try and climb up that ladder.”
The first match at Galle is extremely important and both teams now that. A win here will ensure that they cannot lose the two match series while a loss will make a series win impossible. However Galle has been a very good ground for Sri Lanka as they have dominated all the three matches they have played here against England. They have won two of the three and would have won the last one also if rain had not interfered.
However English captain Andrew Strauss is hoping that the pitch will not be as helpful to the bowlers as it has been in past. “The history of the wicket is that it tends to deteriorate as the match goes on, but I expect it to be a pretty good Test wicket. You are looking for a good balance to your side to give you the best chance of taking 20 wickets,” Strauss said.
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