Lanka to make full use of England Lions tour to pick team for NZ

• Name 15-man squad for first 4-day unofficial test at Galle

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Nipun Dananjaya leads Sri Lanka ‘A’

Sahan Arachchige captains SLC Board XI

Sri Lanka will try to as far as possible maximise England Lions’ cricket tour of the country to pick their

Test squad to New Zealand. In doing so, they have named a 15-man squad for the first 4-day unofficial test commencing at Galle International Cricket Stadium on 31 January.

The squad led by former Sri Lanka Under-19 World Cup captain Nipun Dananjaya has four Test caps plus two others who have figured in white ball cricket.

Figuring prominently are Test opener Oshada Fernando who last week began the National Super League 4-day with a marvellous double century for Kandy, wicket-keeper/batsman Sadeera Samarawickrama who was in splendid nick in the recently concluded Major League tournament for Tamil Union scoring over 1,000 runs (1022 runs, avg. 51.10) with four centuries, left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya who picked up a match bag of 10 wickets for Kandy against Colombo last week in the NSL game, and left-arm spin all-rounder Dunith Wellalage. 

The two white ball cricketers are Janith Liyanage and Nuwanidu Fernando, who made his ODI debut against India early this month.

The rest of the players who make up the 15 are those who have performed consistently in the Major League tournament.

As the squad has been picked only for the first unofficial test, there is room for changes to be made for the second unofficial test starting also at Galle on 7 February as the selectors may want to look at a few other players with the New Zealand tour in mind.  

There is also a school of thought of sending only the playing 11 for the first unofficial test to Galle, and allowing the remaining four players to represent their respective teams in the National Super League 4-day match which will take place from 26-29 January. Once the games are concluded, the four players can return to Galle for the unofficial test. The squad for the first unofficial test leaves for Galle on 27 January.

England Lions will open their six-match tour of Sri Lanka with a 3-day warm-up match against a Sri Lanka Cricket Board XI at the R Premadasa Stadium today.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has requested whether they can rotate players during the match in order to give as many players the opportunity to bat and bowl in the middle. The request has come because it’s the off season in England and they have not played much cricket.

It is learnt that Sri Lanka Cricket has agreed to the request and will also be using the match to rotate their players as well because they haven’t played red ball cricket for a long time players like Dunith Wellalage, Lahiru Udara, Janith Liyanage, Sahan Arachchige, Isitha Wijesundera and Nishan Madushanka whom they would want to spend some time in the middle against England Lions before the first unofficial test.

If that happens the 3-day game will lose its first-class status as more than 11 players will be on duty during the match.

SRI LANKA ‘A’ SQUAD FOR 1st 4-DAY UNOFFICIAL TEST

Nishan Madushka, Oshada Fernando, Nuwanidu Fernando, Nipun Dananjaya (captain), Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Sahan Arachchige, Dunith Wellalage, Lasith Embuldeniya, Lakshitha Manasinghe, Milan Ratnayake, Shiran Fernando, Lahiru Udara, Isitha Wijesundera, Amshi de Silva, Janith Liyanage.

SLC BOARD XI FOR 3-DAY WARM-UP GAME

Lasith Croospulle, Lahiru Udara (wk), Pasindu Sooriyabandara, Avishka Tharindu, Janith Liyanage, Sahan Arachchige (captain), Nimesh Vimukthi, Isitha Wijesundera, Kavindu Pathirathna, Dushan Hemantha, Nimsara Atharagalla, Dunith Wellalage, Nishan Madushka.