Lasith Malinga nd Angelo Mathews are not part of the Sri Lanka Test squad announced today for the tour of England. Mathews is still recovering from a quad muscle injury that
made him miss the World Cup final and also made him miss the ongoing IPL.Malinga's ability to last for a five-day match has been doubtful for some time now. He last played a Test against India in the three-match home series last year, and even then, he was rested for the second match. He has played only 30 Tests in a seven-year span, and has been sparingly used by Sri Lanka to keep him fresh for the shorter formats where he has proved far more effective.
The 16-member squad has four fast bowlers in Dilhara Fernando, Chanaka Welegedara, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep. Seamer Nuwan Kulasekara, who played in Sri Lanka's previous Test series, against West Indies, is not part of the squad.
Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal have also received call-ups. Both are considered to be among the most promising young Sri Lankan batsmen, and have already played ODIs. Chandimal debuted in the ODI tri-series in Zimbabwe last year as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
Thisara Perera is the bowling allrounder in the squad to be led by new captain Tillakaratne Dilshan. A vice-captain to Dilshan is yet to be announced. This will be Dilshan's first assignment as captain and will also be Sri Lanka's first overseas Test tour since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan.
The timing of the team's departure for the tour has been a subject of controversy as eleven Sri Lankan players, including former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, are currently playing in the IPL and seven of them are in the squad for England. They were earlier asked by Sri Lanka Cricket to report to Colombo by May 5 as the team is due to depart for England on May 10. The move was criticised by Muralitharan who said that the players had earlier been expected to play in the IPL till May 20.
Sri Lanka squad: 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Tharanga Paranavitana, 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Dinesh Chandimal, 8 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 9 Thisara Perera, 10 Suraj Randiv, 11 Ajantha Mendis, 12 Rangana Herath, 13 Dilhara Fernando, 14 Chanaka Welegedara, 15 Suranga Lakmal, 16 Nuwan Pradeep
