Chasing an elusive dream of winning their first cricket Test in India, Sri Lanka will begin the tour with a two-day tour fixture against a depleted Board President’s XI on Saturday. Sri Lanka who will play their first Test in India since 2009-10 have a forgettable record in the country as they are yet to win from 16 appearances and have suffered 10 defeats in their head-to-head record spanning 1982-2017. In almost matches, the Indian spinners had been the biggest threat for Sri Lanka batsmen over the years.
The current crop of players are aware of the upcoming spin threat. Today, most of the Sri Lankan batsmen focused on tackling the turning ball ahead of their warm-up. In the first lot, Dimuth Karunaratne batted with Sadeera Samarawickrama and vice-captain Lahiru Thirimanne. Angelo Mathews, who has returned to the squad after missing the entire series against Pakistan last month, batted long and looked in good touch.
Though three players :uncapped batsman Roshen Silva, all-rounders Dilruwan Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva – kipped practice session, as they just arrived today, due to Visa issues.
