Chanderpaul chooses to bat

Toss West Indies chose to bat v Sri Lanka

Already struggling with a depleted squad for the series, Shivnarine Chanderpaul did the West Indians a small favour by winning the toss and choosing to bat in the first Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo. The pitch had minimal grass and looked a good one for batting, but with conditions being overcast, it might not be a bad toss to lose for Sri Lanka, a thought echoed by Marvan Atapattu, their captain. The last time the two teams played a Test at the ground, West Indies were destroyed by Chaminda Vaas, not Muttiah Muralitharan: Vaas took 14 for 191 to bury West Indies to a ten-wicket defeat.

The absence of several top players meant West Indies have three debutants in their side - Xavier Marshall, the opener, Runako Morton, who will bat at No. 3, and Denesh Ramdin, the wicketkeeper. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, offered a first Test cap to Gayan Wijekoon, an allrounder who bowls left-arm medium pace and bats left-handed, and has performed consistently for the A team.

Sri Lanka 1Marvan Atapattu (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardena, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 7 Gayan Wijekoon, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Rangana Herath 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Lasith Malinga.

West Indies 1 Xavier Marshall, 2 Sylvester Joseph, 3 Runako Morton, 4 Narsingh Deonarine, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), 6 Dwayne Smith, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Omari Banks, 9 Darren Powell, 10 Tino Best, 11 Jermaine Lawson.