Colombo, November 09: The Sri Lankan cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara said India would be under pressure to maintain their home record of not losing a single Test to Sri Lanka in their previous 14 encounters.
Sangakkara, speaking at a press conference after arriving here this morning for a three Test, five ODI and two Twenty20 internationals, said he and his teammates would do everything to break the jinx but the hosts would not be without any pressure either.
”We have to wait and see how India comes out of this loss (against Australia), especially at home. We are under no pressure.
We have not won a Test here before and we are here to change things here. The pressure is on India to keep their home series record intact,” Sangakkara further said. Sangakkara said the Lankan new ball attack may be an inexperienced one, but that may turn out to be an advantage.
”Sometimes inexperience is good. Maybe the Indian batsmen have nota really played our fast bowlers regularly in the longer format of the game. It’s good to have some experience when you come to a country like India. But sometimes a fresh perspective, enthusiasm and right attitude will also be an added bonus,” the Lanka captain explained. He said the presence of a performing all-rounder like Angelo Mathews has given his team a lot of options in both batting and bowling and they can even think of including all three spinners in the eleven if needed.
The Lankan captain also said that they would have to be as tough as possibly ”as we can both mentally and physically if we are going to do well.” ”We can go as all our teams have done in the past and come back and say well it’s still unchanged or we go out there and give our best and win the last frontier for us in India and then take confidence from that and move onto the one-day series,” he added.
–Agencies–