Sri Lanka waits on Sangakkara fitness before first test

CENTURION, South Africa (Reuters): Sri is are confident key batsman Kumar Sangakkara will recover from a hand injury in time for the first test against South Africa starting on Thursday.

Sangakkara, 34, split the webbing between the index and second fingers of his right hand during Sri Lanka’s weather-affected warm-up match against an SA Invitation XI in Benoni at the weekend and was unable to bat.

Sri Lanka team manager Anura Tennekoon told Reuters he was confident Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s second highest all-time run-scorer with 9167 runs in 103 tests, will be able to play in the first test at Centurion.

“Sanga has split the webbing on his right hand, but it’s okay, he’s recovering well and, according to the medical experts, he should be fine for the first test,” Tennekoon said on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s fast bowling prospects are less positive however, after Nuwan Pradeep’s hamstring strain added to a run of injuries among the pacemen.

Nuwan Kulasekara, Dhammika Prasad, Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal were all ruled out of the tour before departure and the 25-year-old Pradeep is now likely to be joining them back home, Tennekoon said.

“Nuwan Pradeep will likely have to return home and be replaced. The replacement hasn’t been decided yet because the selectors want to look at a few bowlers in domestic matches first. So it’s unlikely the replacement will arrive in time for the first test.”

Sri Lanka has not won a test in South Africa in seven attempts and the home side’s vice-captain AB de Villiers said the tourists held little fear for them.

“If we get a good cricket wicket and we play good cricket, then they’re not going to stop us,” De Villiers told a news conference at Centurion on Monday.

The batsman said the series represented an ideal opportunity for the South Africans to end an astonishing gap of three years since their last series win at home, over Bangladesh in 2008/9.

“We need to get back to playing consistently good cricket for longer periods, that’s probably the reason we haven’t won at home for a while. We want to do that for the whole series against Sri Lanka,” De Villiers said.

“My feeling is that test cricket is all about momentum and you get waves that are up and down.

Whoever maximises their opportunities when they’re on top, when they have the opposition on the ropes, will win. You have to finish off the opposition, be aggressive, whether you’re batting or bowling.”