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Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva is betting on pace to do the job against Bangladesh in the second game of the two-match series ahead of their 11-month Test hiatus in the World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle.
In the past couple of years, Silva has insisted on infusing pacers at home, which offers them an opportunity to prepare the quicks for overseas assignments. In the second Test against Bangladesh, Silva is considering putting three in the final XI, considering the benign nature of SSC. "We've got 12 in the squad, and we've got options, because our weather is changing from time to time as well. We were hoping to go with three seamers, but it's hard to tell exactly - the pitch also looks flat," Silva said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. Sri Lanka's theory of lining up with more pacers could possibly stem from how Bangladesh batters against their quicks compared to the spinners. The top three seamers, including Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, and Kasun Rajitha, scalped 29 wickets between them, occupying first, second and third spots on the series wicket-takers list. "Not just in the last series in Bangladesh, even in the previous one, it was pace that got a lot of wickets. We talked a lot about how the seamers got about 70 per cent of their wickets. But it's not easy to play seamers on these pitches, but we're trying to play three. Let's see what the pitch is like tomorrow morning," Dhananjaya said. Apart from addressing the pace conundrum, Sri Lanka would need to ponder the ideal replacement for Angelo Matthews, who retired from the format after the series opener. Dhananjaya will himself move up from six to four despite his prolific run at the spot. "If you think I'm good enough, I'm ready to bat at four. I'm set to bat there," Dhananjaya said. At number six, the Sri Lankan skipper has averaged 43.95, while at number four, he has been inconsistent while maintaining his average at 20.33. (ANI)
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