Sri Lanka pick five spinners in squad to face England

The Sri Lankan selectors named a fifteen-man squad for the forthcoming First Test Match against England that includes five spinners and two schoolboys.

The selectors are considering playing three spin bowlers in Galle on Thursday as an insurance against Muttiah Muralitharan breaking down during the game. The selectors, however, expect him to be fully fit by Thursday. More will be known on Monday or Tuesday when he bowls for the first time since sustaining the injury in the final One-Day International in New Zealand.

If they do pick three spinners then they are likely to be Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena and left arm spinner, Dinuk Hettiarachchi, who will be making his debut. The selectors have also included schoolboy spinners, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and Kaushal Lokuarachchi, both of whom have already played against England during the practice games. Pushpakumara played made his first class debut against England on Thursday and the 18 year-old Lokuarachchi is yet to play a first class game.

A strategy of three spinners would leave room for only six batsmen. This means that the management face a tough choice between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Aravinda de Silva for the final batting place.

Tillakaratne Dilshan has scored two centuries against the English in successive matches, but Aravinda de Silva carries with him invaluable experience, in what is considered a very important game for Sri Lanka. De Silva, despite not having recorded a half-century in South Africa and New Zealand, impressed the management greatly with his attitude having being sent as a replacement for Upul Chandana.

Should the captain and coach be totally confident that Muralitharan has recovered from his groin injury, then both batsmen could still play.

The selectors have picked three fast bowlers, one of whom will sit out. This will be a another difficult choice. Dilhara Fernando offers the team raw pace, but can be erratic. Left arm fast bowler, Nuwan Zoysa, has a disappointing tour of South Africa, but came back well in New Zealand.

Kumar Sangakkara returns as wicket keeper in place of Romesh Kaluwitharana, who is not even in the fifteen-man squad.

Full squad:

S.T. Jayasuriya (Bloomfield) Captain, M.S. Atapattu (SSC), K. Sangakkara (NCC), P.A. de Silva (NCC), D.P.M. Jayawardene (SSC), R.P. Arnold (NCC), T.M. Dilshan (Bloomfield), W.P.U.J.C. Vaas (Colts), D.N.T. Zoysa (SSC) , M. Muralitharan (Tamil Union), H.D.P.K. Dharmasena (Bloomfield), R.D. Fernando (SSC), D. Hettiarachchi (Colts), M. Pushpakumara (Ananda College), K. Lokuarachchi (St. Peter's College)