Sri Lankan pacer Suranga Lakmal will miss the second Test

It seems as if bad news and Sri Lankan cricket are best friends now as the Lions are finding it tough to plan an escape. After a humiliating defeat against Zimbabwe, the Lions hosted men in blue at the Galle International Stadium for the first Test match. As expected, the Indian team steamrolled the hosts and started the series on a positive note.

The major concern for Rangana Herath & Co. has been the bowling department. In the entire match, the Lankan bowlers managed to take only 13 wickets, that too after conceding 840 runs. After the heavy drubbing in the first match, the Sri Lankan management was looking to make some changes so as to revive the squad. The hosts went with the pace duo of Lahiru kumara and Nuwan Pradeep in the first match.

Unfortunately for them, they won’t be able to experiment much with the pace bowling department as pacer Suranga Lakmal has been ruled out of the second Test. He is down with back spasms. With this, Sri Lanka has 3 vital cogs injured at the moment. Asela Gunaratne was ruled out for six weeks after he fractured his thumb. In the first match, veteran spinner and stop-gap skipper Rangana Herath bruised his finger.

Herath’s condition was so bad that he wasn’t able to walk into the ground to bat for the second time. Hence, the Lankan lions are not at all in a mood to ‘roar’ with so many injuries around. Given the extremely formidable squad that India possesses, it will require a top drawer performance for the home team to bring back parity in the series, else it will head into a one-way traffic.

A ray of hope!

Among the many bad news, the only good news for Sri Lanka is that their skipper Dinesh Chandimal is fit to lead the side in the second game. Chandimal missed the first game owing to pneumonia for which he was hospitalized. the second test will be played at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Lankan capital Colombo from 3rd of August.