St John’s [Antigua], March 20 (ANI): Ahead of the two-match Test series against West Indies, Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne said that the hosts bowling attack is good and they need at least 275 or 300 runs to stay alive in the series.
Sri Lanka have struggled with the bat in their last four Tests, failing to make 200 in four of their eight innings. In their latest home Test series against England, Sri Lanka twice failed to cross the 150-run mark in the four innings.
“The West Indies pace attack is a really good one, and they know how to move the Dukes ball. We think we need at least 275 or 300 runs to stay in the series. That’s not easy, but we’ve talked about how we can do that. If we can get that kind of score on the board, our fast bowlers can defend it and we’ll be in the game,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Karunaratne as saying.
“The pitches here are difficult, especially when you bat first. There’s swing and there’s also a tendency for it to stop on the pitch. We’re also playing against the Dukes ball for the first time in a while, and we haven’t had a lot of practice because we played the one-day matches one after the other, and then only had one day off before we got back into a tight training schedule.
“We had one day to train and went straight into the practice match. It’s not going to be easy for batsmen to score big runs here. They’ll have to work hard. The Duke ball swings and seams all the time,” he added.
Karunaratne further said that Dushmantha Chameera, Suranga Lakmal and Vishwa Fernando will be their first choice pacers in the Test series.
“We rested Dushmantha in the last ODI and in the practice match because we will ask a lot from him in the Tests. Not only is the pitch good for quicks, we’ll also need a bit of extra pace, and of the bowlers in the squad right now, Dushmantha is the guy who has that. We’ll probably have Suranga Lakmal and Vishwa Fernando as well,” he said.
The first Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka will be played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium from Sunday. (ANI)