SL hope to counter rampaging England

CHESTER-LE-STREET, England: The weather in Durham this week has been about as far removed as can be imagined from the sultry, tropical heat of Sri Lanka that Angelo Matthews and his men are used to.

Grey skies, temperatures in the low teens and the odd shower has welcomed the tourists to England’s northern-most Test ground which hosts the second Test from Friday (today) and a sense of gloom may well be indicative of their mood after a three-day defeat at Headingley.

Shanaka was one of the few bright spots for the visitors along with Kusal Mendis’ batting in the second innings.

It has been a disastrous start to the tour with a double injury blow afflicting their quickest bowler Dushmantha Chameera and their most experienced seamer Dhammika Prasad, who missed the first Test. Both have been forced home with injury which means Suranga Lakmal will come into the side to replace Chameera.

With England’s batting fragile, Sri Lanka will fancy their chances of making inroads again in Durham but it is their batting that is the major worry.

Anderson, whose 10 wickets were an excellent riposte to those who thought he had lost his nip in South Africa, and Broad offered accuracy, a full length and movement in the air and off the surface but Sri Lanka batted for just over 72 overs in the match at Headingley.

That is an exceedingly poor performance from a Test match side, no matter the quality of the bowling.

It remains to be seen if the top order can learn quickly enough from their mistakes to succeed in Durham but much rests on Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, the two best players in the side, to score the runs that could make this a competitive game. How Sri Lanka miss the class of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena.

England have also been hit by injury, with Ben Stokes having a successful knee operation this week but one that has ruled him out until July as a result.

Chris Woakes, fresh from a nine-wicket haul in Warwickshire’s last game, has been called up to the squad and it is a shootout between him and young paceman Jake Ball for Stokes’ spot.