http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 – Series Preview: An uphill battle for the visitors – Part One
England and Sri Lanka will be up against each other tomorrow as the three-match Test series starts at Cardiff. The Test series will follow a T20 match and five One Day Internationals later on.
This series is going to be an uphill battle for the tourists as their bowling attack looks very thin on paper after the retirement of some of their match-winning bowlers like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SL-Malinga-c2540.
On top of that, it is always a huge challenge for any touring team to adjust in England’s conditions, especially in the early season when the bowlers tend to get extravagant movement in the air and off the pitch as well.
Sri Lanka’s batting coach and former captain Marvan Attapatu admitted at the start of the tour that it is going to be very tough for his batsmen to adjust in the English conditions. However, he feels that if the Sri Lankan team wins the Test series then
it will become very easy for them to beat the tourists in the limited overs portion of the tour.
Attapatu said, "The biggest challenge is to adjust to English conditions. We are playing a Test series after a gap of a few months. Winning the Test series in England is our aim. A (Test) win will make it easier for our preparation work for the one-day and
T20 games."
However, batting is not the worrying thing for Sri Lanka’s management at the moment as they have a lot of experience in this department. Players like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TT-Samaraweera-c2712 have a vast experience
of playing in England and they should be able to adjust in the conditions sooner rather than later.
Even if the Sri Lankan batting posts a huge score on the board, the big question mark is their ability to take 20 wickets in a match against a batting lineup which is oozing with confidence.
England’s batting lineup is in tremendous form at the moment in the longer version of the game as they displayed high-class batting against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RT-Ponting-c2377 and company to find inroads in the English
batting lineup. So to bowl out the English team will be the real concern for the Sri Lankan management at the moment, considering the thin nature of their bowling attack at the moment.
Head Coach of the visitors http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964 and his men and said that England have emerged as the best Test team of
the world since last couple of years.
He is still optimistic about Sri Lanka’s chances against England but feels that it is the toughest tour Sri Lankan team could have faced at this stage when they are trying to rebuild after the World Cup.
"I have said openly, in the last 18 months England have been the best team in world cricket. They have beaten teams in their backyard; they've beaten teams away from home. They are well drilled and leave nothing to chance. We are preparing for them to be
the toughest deal on the planet at this stage," Law said.
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