On the eve of the first Test on their tour of England, Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya De Silva has rued lack of game-time for his players claiming that they wanted to play a few more warm-up games but were denied the opportunity.
Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva has revealed that his team wanted to play more than one warm-up game against England in the upcoming three matches of the Test series against the Three Lions, which is set to commence on August 21 at Old Trafford in Manchester. Notably, the side was denied more warm-up games ahead of the red-ball series. The visiting sides endured the loss by 7 wickets in their four-day, first-class match against an inexperienced England team at New Road last week. The Sri Lankan side were bundled out for just 139 runs on the opening day but grew into the game with Nishan Madushka, Angelo Mathews, and Dhananjaya de Silva all scoring fifties.
In the same vein, Sri Lankan Test skipper De Silva has opened up about the loss and feels that the conditions are quite different in England as compared to the Asian countries. The star all-rounder revealed that they wanted to play a few more games ahead of the Test series as they didn’t play with their full strength as they tried out a few different players in the game. The middle-order batter feels that despite losing the game, they are ready to face England in the upcoming red-ball series.
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“The conditions are quite different to Asian countries. We wanted to play a few matches, but that’s what we get. We didn’t go with the full-strength [team]. We have tried out a few players as well. The result didn’t go our way, but we had the preparation, I think. It’ll work in this match,” Dhananjaya said.
Dhananjaya de Silva revealed that his side is currently in a good mental state. The Hambantota-born cricketer says that the warm-up games were crucial for them as it was a good training session for them, and they got the preparation they wanted ahead of the Test series.
“Our mental state is good. Yes, we lost the practice match, but that match is there for our training. Within that, we got the preparation we wanted,” he added further.
Meanwhile, both sides are heading into full confidence in the series. The hosts recently outclassed the West Indies by 3-0 in the Test series. On the other hand, the Sri Lankan side had thwarted Team India by 2-0 in the ODI series.
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