Sri Lanka has the rare honour of going into a Test match with the world’s best batsman and best bowler in their ranks, as they prepare to take on England in the second Test at the SSC on Sunday

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo08-Dec-2007

Following the retirement of Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga will open with Michael Vandort © AFP
Sri Lanka has the rare honour of going into a Test match with theworld’s best batsman and best bowler in their ranks, as they prepareto take on England in the second Test at the SSC on Sunday.Kumar Sangakkara made history during the first Test at Kandy, when hebecame the first batsman to make scores in excess of 150 in fourconsecutive Tests. His innings of 92 and 152 were the single biggestdifferences between the two teams, although it was Muttiah Muralitharan whoclaimed most of the plaudits, as he broke Shane Warne’s world recordin the midst of another nine-wicket haul.Both men now sit proudly at the top of the ICC world rankings, andwith players of that quality to call upon, Sri Lanka’s captain,Mahela Jayawardene, was able to look forward with confidence to thesecond Test, where his side have the opportunity to wrap up the serieswith a match to spare.”It’s to do with the brand of cricket that we play,” Jayawardene said.”We are not afraid to express ourselves out there whether it is in aTest or ODI. We just go out there and enjoy ourselves and play thebrand of cricket we are quite used to playing. That has helped us tobe the best that we can be.”We have lots of records in world cricket and hopefully we want topush ourselves a bit more every day. That’s the attitude we are tryingto develop in our younger generation. Not just be complacent with thetalent you have but still work hard so that they can be better playersfive or six years down the line.”It’s not just a recent phenomenon from Sri Lanka, as Jayawardene waskeen to point out. For this team, everything stems from the success ofthe 1996 World Cup squad, who transformed the ambitions of theisland’s cricketers. “They showed that if we believe in ourselves wecan definitely be one of the best teams in the world and be veryconsistent at that.”The effort we put in has to go to that group of players who,with limited facilities, proved beyond anybody’s dreams what Sri Lankacan achieve. We do owe them a lot of gratitude for that. Our selfbelief, our motivation is because of them. We know we can be the bestin the world if we work really hard.”Sri Lanka eventually won the first Test by 88 runs, but the scorelinedoesn’t indicate just how closely fought the game was. UntilMuralitharan popped up with the new ball, England were within 20minutes of salvaging a draw, and Jayawardene was well aware that – butfor one or two missed opportunities – the result could have been evencloser than that.”England are a very good side,” said Jayawardene. “The first Test is amatch they probably should have done much better [in], given the situationthey were in after the first couple of days. In that regard we arevery happy with the result. They’ll come back really hard at us and wejust need to make sure we concentrate and look out for those momentsand make sure we put them under pressure early in the Test and keepthem down as much as possible.”There is one significant change in the Sri Lankan ranks. SanathJayasuriya retired from Test cricket after the Kandy victory, whichhas allowed Upul Tharanga to return to open the batting with MichaelVandort. That’s about the only change Sri Lanka are likely to makefrom their winning side.Tharanga had a great 2006 season but lost his form and was eventuallydropped from the team. He has since fought his way back with a centuryand an eighty against England in the warm-up games and withJayasuriya’s retirement was the most likely candidate for the opener’sberth. With Marvan Atapattu, Jayasuriya’s long standing openingpartner, also quitting international cricket, Jayawardene said thatSri Lanka cricket was currently going through a difficult phase.”We just need to make sure we keep the focus going and help theyoungsters to get through this period and guide them through,” saidJayawardene, “because these are the guys who are going to take SriLanka cricket in the next decade or so.”It’s going to be a good challenge for us. It is easier for them to playin home conditions. For them to take that kind of responsibility ontheir own turf it will be a much easier job for them. They can moveforward after that. We played guys like Chamara [Silva], Mubarak,Vandort and Upul when the opportunities came. These are not pretty newguys; they’ve had some experience.”It’s tough [with] both Marvan and Sanath leaving at the same time but we knewit was going to happen. Both of them were in the same age group and wefelt they probably make that call at the same time which happened. Wewere prepared for it and these are the young guys who can take thatresponsibility and we wish them the very best.”