Sri Lanka include three uncapped players in Test squad

Chamika Gunasekara

Lahiru Udara

Milan Ratnayake

• Batting track at SSC to counter Afghanistan bowling threat

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka have included three uncapped players in their 16-man squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan starting at the SSC grounds on 2 February.

Top order batsman Lahiru Udara and right-arm fast-medium bowlers Chamika Gunaseskara and Milan Ratnayake are the ones selected, but are unlikely to be called into the playing eleven.

Gunasekara, 24-year-old right-arm fast-medium bowler from NCC has appeared in one ODI, but has been a member of the national squad before. So has lanky six footer 27-year-old Ratnayake who made the Test tour to New Zealand last February.

Udara (30) made his T20I debut against Afghanistan in Hangzhou in October last year. He has been a prolific scorer with NCC in domestic cricket. In the recently concluded 2023 season Udara won the Best Batsman of the Tournament award being the leading run-getter in the Major 3-day league with 828 runs (avg. 55.20) in 10 matches with 3 centuries and five fifties.

Sri Lanka are returning to Test cricket after a lapse of seven months and there is not much the national selectors can go by to make any major changes to the side that played its last Test in July against Pakistan.

That series saw Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Kasun Rajitha and Dilshan Madushanka play the role of seamers and Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis handling the spin.

The batting line up is also unlikely to change with Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka as openers followed by Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva and Sadeera Samarawickrama.

The Test will mark the debut of De Silva as the new Sri Lanka Test Captain succeeding Karunaratne who led the side for four years from 2019 in 30 Tests.

The last Test Sri Lanka played was also at the SSC where they suffered a heavy defeat by an innings and 222 runs at the hands of Pakistan. Sri Lanka’s batting was dismantled by the pace of Naseem Shah and spinners Noman Ali and Abrar Ahmed.

With Afghanistan possessing a fine spin bowling attack backed up by seamers Sri Lanka are not likely to play into their hands, but are preparing a batting track where heavy scoring could be the order of the day.

Match Officials

Chris Broad will be the ICC Match Referee for the Test match with Michael Gough, Alex Wharf, Chris Brown and Prageeth Rambukwella as the umpires.