COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has a team good enough to beat India in the second Test and level the three-match series despite a heavy defeat in the first game last week, captain Dinesh Chandimal said Wednesday.
Chandimal, who was named Test captain after the resignation of Angelo Mathews, missed the first match because of pneumonia. He said his team has trained hard and is in a good state of mind to take on the No. 1-ranked Test team starting Thursday.
India beat Sri Lanka by 304 runs in the first Test in Galle with a day to spare.
“We trained for three days, all the players are in a good state of mind,” Chandimal said. “I go into every match hoping to win. I have that determination and I have good players as well.”
Sri Lanka is likely to hand a first international cap to left-arm spin bowler Malinda Pushpakumara to partner veteran Rangana Herath, Chandimal said.
If Pushpakumara plays, it will be the 30-year-old bowler’s 100th first class match. He has 558 wickets in his first class career.
Batsman Dhananjaya de Silva will replace injured Asela Gunaratne while Herath has recovered from a finger injury sustained in the last Test match.
India captain Virat Kohli said that opening batsman Lokesh Rahul will return to the side after missing the first match because of the flu.
While both openers played in the last match had done well, Kohli said it was important to back Rahul considering his consistent contribution to the team.
“I feel one of the openers will have to make way for KL (Rahul) because what he has done for us in the past two years has been very solid. He deserves to come back and start fresh in test cricket again,” Kohli said.
Abhinav Mukund is likely to make way for him.
World Cup hero Ranatunga stops watching Sri Lanka
Former Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunga on Wednesday lambasted the country’s cricket leaders and said he had stopped watching the ailing national team.
Ranatunga, 53, said he was also disillusioned with the government of which he is a minister because it failed to protect the game.
“Frankly, I don’t watch cricket anymore,” Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to a World Cup triumph in 1996, told AFP. “I read about it in the newspapers but I don’t watch cricket.”
Since retiring, the sports star has entered politics and was an unelected cricket administrator in 2008.
“I am disappointed about cricket since the last elections,” he said.
Ranatunga and his brother stood for the top two posts on the Sri Lankan cricket board in January last year but were easily beaten by Thilanga Sumathipala and his team.
Ranatunga, who is the petroleum minister, is pushing for the ousting of the leadership and the appointment of an interim committee to administer the game.
He said he had asked authorities to intervene in Sri Lanka Cricket but has had no response.
“I thought OK, if the government thinks this is right — and I am part of this government — I tried to take a step back and allowed them to run. They (the board) has messed up everything.”
“No one is willing to listen to me.”
Ranatunga has not missed much in stopping watching the national side. Sri Lanka lost a home one-day series to Zimbabwe last month and were hammered in the first Test against India at the weekend.
Last month Ranatunga demanded an investigation into the country’s 2011 World Cup final defeat by India amid allegations of match-fixing.
Sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekera has said he was willing to order a probe if there was a written complaint.
Sri Lanka captain says he is determined to win second Test
Sri Lanka captain says he is determined to win second Test
