“We can win the test series against the Kiwis” – Dimuth

By Dhammika Ratnaweera

Sri Lanka will launch their ICC Test Championship challenge at home against the in-form New Zealand, who narrowly missed the limited over One-Day International world champions title England in less than a month. Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunarathna said that since it’s their first series of the championship, the team is very keen to perform well and take an early advantage using the home conditions.

“This is going to be the second test series as captain for me and I hope to carry on the success we had against South Africa before the world cup in England. We will be having the services of former captains Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal for this series and I am sure that will be a plus point to the team” said Karunarathna.

After a fairly improved performance in the world cup going as underdogs, Sri Lanka then clean-swept t Bangladesh in three-match ODI series at home and are brimming with confidence rallied around their new captain.

“We are just after four months of limited over cricket and it is time that we adapt to the longer version of the game with red ball cricket” said Karunarathna, who is hopeful that his good run against New Zealand, would help him in this series as well.

Sri Lanka will play their first test in Galle and the second match in Colombo.

“When it comes to playing test cricket in Galle, we miss our great spinners in Murali and Herath, who have had many records in that venue before their retirement. Dilruwan Perera is not completely fit, so we might have to depend on new spinners,” explained Karunarathna adding that even New Zealand had added extra spinners to their team, which enjoys a superb pace attack in any conditions.

Sri Lankan skipper also noted that New Zealand have tactically appointed Sri Lanka’s former batting coach Thilan Samaraweera as their batting consultant for the tour in order to familiarise the home conditions and home team strengths. “Coach Samaraweera is a very experienced cricketer and a knowledgable person, we would miss him badly in this series” added Karunarathna.

However, skipper Karunarathna said that the team was mainintaing a positive mood in the dressing room and that they hope to carry forward that and win the series against New Zealand.