Sri Lanka name spin-heavy Test squad

Sri Lanka have called up Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Nuwan Zoysa, Avishka Gunawardene and Nuwan Kulasekera into a 15-man squad for the first Test match against Australia, which starts in the south coast town of Galle on Monday.

The selectors, who picked the side on Thursday night after the completion of a three-day warm-up match between Australia and a President's XI, included four specialist spinners in a match that should be dominated by the slow bowlers.

Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner, is the surprise omission after impressive performances for Sri Lanka A in South Africa and India. His omission from the A squad for a tour of New Zealand had suggested a promotion to the national team.

Zoysa, now 25 years old, returns to the fold for the first time since June 2002 after his match-winning performance against Australia in the final one-dayer, when he grabbed three wickets and then stroked 47 from 42 balls.

Zoysa is expected to open the bowling with Chaminda Vaas. The seamers will be backed up by two frontline spinners and seven batsmen. But there is an outside chance that the final XI will include three specialist slow bowlers.

The squad needs to to be ratified by the Minister of Sports.

Sri Lanka squad Hashan Tillakaratne (capt), Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Avishka Gunawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Nuwan Kulasekara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana, Kaushal Lokuarachchi