Atapattu braces for Indian challenge

COLOMBO—Sri Lanka’s Captain, Marvan Atapattu, has said that the tour of India will assess how well his team can perform away from home. Sri Lanka boast a formidable home record, with 30 wins from 77 matches, but they have recorded just 11 wins in 75 overseas matches.
“We haven’t been really tested for a long period of time and we haven’t played seven one-dayers for a long time,” Atapattu said, whose side leaves for Bombay today. “It demands us to be focussed. We are expecting a tough challenge from India playing in India, and we will be up to it. We want tougher challenges to assess ourselves where we stand [playing away from home],” he added.
“We know we have done well in Sri Lanka, but it is different when you face the Indians at home. We are all geared up for the tour. Unfortunately we haven’t had the best of batting sessions due to reasons beyond our control. We have given ourselves the best of chance of coming out and practicing. Hopefully, after we play the practice game on October 22 we will be ready to take on India in the series starting on October 25”.
After recently being voted the best one-day international captain by the ICC, Atapattu said: “The award reflects back on the performance we have had in the past few months. The credit should be shared by all of us not only by me. It’s a great honour to have that cap given to me. I take it as a pride to the team itself.
“It is after a long time since we last toured India [eight years]. We haven’t won a Test match there so far. We are starting off with seven one-dayers and it is important that we do well and gain confidence for the Test series — although it is a totally different ball game,” he added.
Commenting on the changes India have made for the first two one-day matches, Atapattu said: “From the amount of cricket all the countries are going to play leading up to the World Cup, it is important to keep your main guys fresh by giving youngsters a chance. That is what India have done. Although we haven’t played the best of sides, we have also been experimenting on the same lines”.
Sri Lanka meet a Mumbai Cricket Association President’s XI in a one-day practice match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on October 22 before commencing their seven-match one-day series against India at Nagpur on October 25. The first Test begins on December 2.

—Agencies