Sri Lanka opt to bat with debut for Peiris; New Zealand unchanged

September 26, 2024
12:33 pm

Toss Sri Lanka chose to bat vs New Zealand

Sri Lanka won the toss again in Galle and unsurprisingly chose to bat again, which means New Zealand will bat last once again on what is expected to be another turner. Dhananjaya de Silva said the pitch looked “firmer than the last one with less grass” after Sri Lanka won their sixth toss in a row and seventh out of eight this year.

Sri Lanka’s two changes were already known. Milan Rathnayake, who impressed with bat and ball in his debut series in England, came in for Lahiru Kumara, and Nishan Peiris was given a debut in place of offspinner Ramesh Mendis as a like-for-like replacement. Kumara went wicketless in the first Test whereas Ramesh bagged six wickets but lacked control at times.

Peiris, 27, has played 41 first-class games for 172 wickets at an average of 24.37.

New Zealand went unchanged after putting up a strong fight in the first Test, which they lost by a not-so-big margin of 63 runs.

There are short and sharp showers expected in Galle, though at the time of the toss it was bright and sunny.

Eyeing another victory at home, Sri Lanka are on the rise on the WTC points table, placed third now, behind India and Australia. Another victory at Galle will put them on the heels of Australia (62.50%) with 56% points.

New Zealand would want to build on their promising performance in the first Test before their India tour. They are fourth on the table with 42.85% points.

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karuanaratne, 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kusal Mendis (wk), 8 Milan Rathnayake, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Nishan Peiris, 11 Asitha Fernando

New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee (capt), 10 Ajaz Patel, 11 Will O’Rourke