Thursday 5 May 2016 12:02, UK
Sri Lanka's inexperienced batting line-up faces a 'huge challenge' this summer as they bid to pull off a repeat of their historic 2014 series win over England, coach Graham Ford has said.
Two years ago, Sri Lanka posted their first away series victory over Alastair Cook's side in Test cricket and then won an ODI series and a one-off T20 international.
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But they are missing Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, both now retired, and Ford admits the new-look line-up must adapt quickly to English conditions.
"As far as our batting goes, having lost a couple of senior players (Sangakkara and Jayawardene), obviously young players have come in," said Ford, who is overseeing his first Test series since returning for a second spell as coach.
"They have worked extremely well and extremely hard in the past few weeks. It can be a huge mental challenge for them to play in English conditions.
"I am quietly confident that they will be able to work together and really create pressure in English conditions.
"It is going to be extremely important that they work together as a unit and support each other. If we get that right, we can cause some problems for English batsmen."
Captain Angelo Mathews said he expected Lahiru Thirimanne, one of Sri Lanka's leading batsman before he hit a recent run of poor form, to bounce back during the tour.
"I think we all know Thirimanne is very technically equipped and he is our best batsman at the moment," said Mathews.
"A slight mental shift in his approach can do wonders. We are all backing him to go out there and fire. We really look forward to him scoring lots of runs."
Sri Lanka have named a 17-member squad, including two uncapped batsmen - Dasun Shanaka and Dhananjaya de Silva - for the Tests starting May 19 in Leeds.
