The Lankans, who are now going through a programme of rebuilding, will hope to overcome the jinx of their win-draught for the past thirteen months and fourteen Test matches when they fly across to the Middle-East to take on an unpredictable Pakistan.
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| Former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara observes "Pansil" with all attention just prior to Sri Lanka's tour of the Middle East to take on Pakistan in a Test series. (Picture by Amila Praboda) |
Sri Lanka has had two sour engagements against England (away) and at home against Australia where the islanders lost both Test series.
But former skippers -- Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara were optimistic that Sri Lanka has all possibilities of making a U-turn and start winning with the series against Pakistan.
Sangakkara who has been Mr. accountable for Sri Lanka hopes to take more responsibility as one of the key players in the side. He explained of his dual role as a senior with more young blood making their way in to the Sri Lanka side. "My role has been as always been the same. It's all about batting and batting well. And with the young guys coming in, it's now also a mentoring role. The tour itself is going to be an interesting one, it's something that we've got to start turning around," said Sangakkara prior to the team's departure in Colombo.
 Sri Lanka is yet to win a Test match and have struggled seriously since of late in the longer version of the game while they have been trying to explore young talent to take over the mantel for the future. Sri Lanka registered its last Test win against India at Galle in July 2010 which incidentally was the retirement game for spin ace and world record holder Muttiah Muralitharan. Since Muralitharan's retirement from Test cricket Sri Lanka has not won a single Test match.
"Against Australia it was not a consistent effort with the bat especially. We weren't able to combat the discipline the Australians showed. Apart from that it's about learning from the series against Australia and England and do well against Pakistan. We've got two series that where we lost, the one days and Tests and it's the time to now start winning. Hopefully we can do that against Pakistan," added Sangakkara.
Sri Lanka's main worry during the past two series, notably against Australia was the inconsistency of their key batsmen. Sri Lanka has had a few who rose up to the occasion but communally the contributions were insufficient to lead towards wins.
"The batting has to be a collective effort. You find that in most games not everyone scores runs but if two people manage to get two big hundreds it helps the cause a lot. I think in Test cricket if you get a first innings of between 350 to 500 runs that's when you can start to dominate proceedings. Being a key batsman it's a case of trying to get those runs for the side," a determined Sangakkara added.
Unlike others in the side Jayawardena was among runs and he hoped to continue his form against Pakistan in Sri Lanka's first appearance in the Middle-East region in Tests.
"Obviously as an individual batsman, my aim is to try and be as consistent as I could. I had a good knock in the Australian series and I just want to continue that. It's a tough series against Pakistan and we all know that they are a quality team. So the duty of the batting group is to try and make sure to be very consistent, score runs and give ourselves an opportunity to win the matches," said Jayawardena.
The series against Pakistan will be Sri Lanka's first with their new head coach Geoff Marsh who took over from Rumesh Ratnayake who acted as the interim coach after Stuart Law joined Bangladesh.
"Our preparation has been pretty good. We have had a bit of time off after Australia and got back into it. We have had some really good fitness sessions and quality net practices during the past few weeks and finished off with a very good three-day practice game. The amount of effort that everyone put out it indicates that all are keen to perform well against Pakistan," Jayawardena explained while commenting further on Marsh's approach.
"We have been working with him over the past week and things are looking pretty settled and good. He's got some new ideas which he wants to get into the team and start working hopefully we implement those in Dubai."
Sri Lanka will play three Tests, five ODIs and a T20 during their series against Pakistan which begins next week. The first Test match is scheduled to begin on October 18 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Sri Lanka squad: T.M. Dilshan (Captain), Angelo Mathews (Vice Captain), Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Prasanna Jayawardena, Suraj Randiv, Dinesh Chandimal, Nuwan Pradeep, Rangana Herath, Kosala Kulasekera, Suranga Lakmal, Tharanga Paranavitana, Dhammika Prasad, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kaushal Silva, Chanaka Welagedara. |
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