Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and decided to bat first against New Zealand in Galle on Wednesday (September 18), in the first Test of their two-match series. (Match Blog | Streaming | Scorecard)
Playing XIs
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Dinesh Chan💦dimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Kusal Mendis (wk), Ramesh Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando.
New Zealand: Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Kane Wiꦍlliamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim 🐷Southee (capt), Will O'Rourke.
Sri Lan♉ka are coming into this match on the back of a famous eight-wicket win ꦜover England in the latter's backyard.
New Zealand, on the other hand, could not get any game time in the controversially abandoned one-off Test against Afghanistan at Greater Noida, where not even a ball could be bowled over the course of five day﷽s.
New Zealand are visiting Sri Lanka after a five-year gap and will expect spin🅘-friendly conditi🔯ons in Galle. Legendary left-armer Rangana Herath has joined the Kiwis as their spin-bowling coach.
