SI Cricket Talks
The group stages of the World Test Championship are done with only the finals left to play. However, the end of the World Test Championship doesn’t mean the end of tests for Sri Lanka till the next cycle as they take on Ireland at home for a two-match test series. As a result, due to this series not being part of the World Test Championship cycle of 2021-2023, it allows Sri Lanka to experiment a bit against a side that is just starting to find its way through test cricket. With that said shall we now take a small preview of the series?
To begin with, let’s talk about Ireland who at times has been a giant killer in the ODI and T20. With that said, they have shown glimpses of the giant killers they are in their short history of four test cricket matches, they have at times pushed more seasoned test cricket nations such as England and Bangladesh in the test matches they played against them respectively. Moreover, this two-match test series against Sri Lanka will be Ireland’s first test series of more than one match. As a result, Ireland will be looking to put up a good fight and push Sri Lanka in an attempt to gain their first test win but they’ll know it isn’t going to be easy as the two matches are played at Galle, a venue which has been a test cricket fortress for Sri Lanka given the spin it offers even on day one. Therefore, Ireland will know and be prepared for a test against spin.
Moving on now to Sri Lanka, who are favourites going into this series given it is a home series and their experience in test cricket. However, they won’t take Ireland lightly as they know what they can do on their day hence Sri Lanka has named a strong squad with few changes to experiment ahead of the next World Test Championship cycle. Moreover, this series could be the last series for Dimuth Karunaratne as captain since he is considering stepping down from captaincy to allow a new captain to lead Sri Lanka in the next World Test Championship cycle hence if he is to leave will be looking to leave on a high. Overall, Sri Lanka will be looking forward to playing in familiar conditions after a testing tour of New Zealand and will hope their batter is able to adapt back to playing spin quickly after being acclimatized to seam bowling in order for them to continue their dominance in Galle.
Overall, this series doesn’t have much hype around it but promises to be a fun series that at times could produce action similar to David vs Goliath. Sri Lanka will look to dominate Ireland and gain some confidence back after the New Zealand tour while Ireland will for their first test win. So what do you think of the series? Will Sri Lanka Celan sweep the series? Or will Ireland surprise them?
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