da apostebet： Sri Lanka have called up Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Nuwan Zoysa, AvishkaGunawardene and Nuwan Kulasekera into a 15-man squad for the first Testmatch against Australia, which starts in the south coast town of Galle onMonday
Wisden Cricinfo staff04-Mar-2004Sri Lanka have called up Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Nuwan Zoysa, AvishkaGunawardene and Nuwan Kulasekera into a 15-man squad for the first Testmatch against Australia, which starts in the south coast town of Galle onMonday.The selectors, who picked the side on Thursday night after the completionof 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 theslow bowlers.Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner, is the surprise omission afterimpressive performances for Sri Lanka A in South Africa and India. Hisomission from the A squad for a tour of New Zealand had suggested apromotion to the national team.Zoysa, now 25 years old, returns to the fold for the first time since June2002 after his match-winning performance against Australia in the finalone-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 willbe backed up by two frontline spinners and seven batsmen. But there is anoutside 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