 The first Test match between England and Sri Lanka will be played at Cardiff
in Wales from May 26. This is the first game of the long summer in England, which
will see the two sides play three test matches, one T20I and five ODIs, and which
will be followed by the series against India that will also have five ODIs, a
T20I and four Test matches.
The two sides have left their IPL commitments behind and all their main players
are back to the country to participate in this Test series.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs Sri Lanka
England will be led by Andrew Strauss in the back of some interesting
decisions made by the selectors. They have decided to have three different captains
in the three different formats of the game, with Alastair Cook leading
the side in the ODIs and Stuart Broad captaining the T20s. This is also the
first Test series that the English side will be playing after they won the Ashes
late last year and early this year and will need to go all out for their win
again.
The Sri Lankan side has a new captain as well. Tillakaratne Dilshan
took over the captaincy after Kumar Sangakkara departed from the scenes after
the final of the World Cup 2011. Dilshan will be leading the side for the first
time on a full-time basis.
The home team cannot afford to slacken given that their opponents are in a
good form. In both the warm up game that the Sri Lankans played, they won -
thanks mainly due to the way that they bowled in the second innings of the game.
In fact, in the second warmup match, they were asked to follow-on by the England
Lions but the hosts went down in a hurry after that and this was followed by
a cracking performance with the bat by the Lankans.
Where the Sri Lankan side may struggle is with their bowling. They do not have
Muralitharan any more and they also lost a pace bowler to injury in Nuwan Pradeep
that would hurt them further. Lasith Malinga announced his retirement
from Test cricket, which leaves them without too many options for now. What
they now need is for the likes of Suraj Randiv and Ajantha Mendis to give them
the wickets even as the likes of Chanaka Welegedara and Suranaga Lakmal try
and build themselves some steam.
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