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Sri Lanka Strive to Keep Series Alive at Their Surprising New Venue
Sri Lanka Strive to Keep Series Alive at Their Surprising New Venue
Sri Lanka's history should provide some hope at Lord's. They have not lost in over 20 years at Lord's with all five encounters in this period ending in draws.
Is there a chance that we might see an intense Test series in London in the next two weeks? It's surprising that Sri Lanka hasn't lost a single Test in this city in six visits since August 1991. While five of those games ended in draws at Lord's, the upcoming match at The Oval will remind us that this team has often defied expectations during their infrequent visits to England.
Sri Lanka did what was described over four competitive days at Emirates Old Trafford. England won their fourth Test this summer but had a tough time with the ball and later with the bat. Joe Root scored 62 not out from 128 balls and led the team in a challenging 205-run chase.
The story had many different parts. For example, what if England hadn't agreed to stop playing because it was too dark for their fast bowlers? Instead, they could have stopped due to bad light, which would have given Milan Rathnayake 12 overs to try to get the highest score ever by a No.9 in their first Test match.
What if England hadn’t been able to change the ball after 41 overs of Sri Lanka’s second innings? By then, Angelo Mathews was playing like he did in 2014, and Kamindu Mendis was on track for his third Test century in just four matches.
Just like in the Oval Ashes Test a year ago, England had to deal with the consequences of how they treated their original ball. They gave up the new-ball swing to get a rougher surface for reverse swing, which Asitha Fernando used effectively. Even though the replacement ball was the same age, it was like comparing a 41-year-old Hollywood actress to a homeless man. Sri Lanka’s captain, Dhananjaya de Silva, said he talked to the match referee about the ball change after the Test. With such issues becoming more common in English Test matches, this loophole needs to be fixed for future games.
Overall, it was hard to say Sri Lanka was unfairly treated in the first Test. When a team struggles to 6 for 3 in the first innings and 1 for 2 in the second, it’s tough to expect a different outcome. One reason for these low scores was the unusually poor performance of Dimuth Karunaratne, who usually averages just under 41 in his 92 Tests. He scored 87 runs for just one out on his last visit to Lord’s in 2016, so there’s hope that history won’t repeat itself this week.
The team is now more familiar with English conditions. Before the Old Trafford Test, they had a low-key warm-up match against England Lions in Worcester, which wasn’t enough to fully prepare them. After dealing with some rain in Manchester, the weather in London is expected to be much sunnier in the coming days. While there’s no proven link between warm weather and better performances from Sri Lanka, past experiences suggest they perform well in the heat.
Sri Lanka finally has the chance they’ve wanted since the 1980s: a full Test series in the prime of the English summer. In the past, they only got one-off matches or early-season games that tested their skills against seam and swing. Now, it’s up to the 2024 team to prove themselves. Despite most expectations, they did pretty well in the first of the three matches.
England Probable XI: Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (C), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir
Sri Lanka Probable XI: Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Pathum Nissanka, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (WK), Dhananjaya de Silva (C), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara
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