Sandakan recalled for second Test

Left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan, the most prolific wicket-taker after legendary bowler Rangana Herath at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium with 12 wickets (avg. 19.91) and a strike rate of 40.9 has been recalled to the Sri Lanka Test squad for the second cricket Test against Bangladesh beginning on Thursday.

Sandakan was a surprise omission from the 18-member squad announced for the two-Test series. He is one of two changes the selectors have made to the injury-hit squad ahead of the second Test. The other is NCC’s right-arm fast-medium bowler Chamika Karunaratne, who gets a recall to the Test squad after two years.

Karunaratne played his only Test against Australia at Canberra in February 2019, but has been a consistent performer for NCC this season, playing a key role in the club winning the SLC Limited-Over final against Ragama CC.

These two players will replace fast bowlers Lahiru Kumara and Dilshan Madushanka in the squad. Kumara and Madushanka have hamstring injuries and have returned to Colombo. Sri Lanka, who went into the first Test with three seamers and one specialist spinner are likely to change their approach for the second Test and go with a balanced attack of two seamers and two specialist spinners.

The track prepared for the first Test turned out to be heavily in favour of the batsmen with neither the seamers nor the spinners from both teams getting any assistance from the surface. – (ST)