Sri Lanka is bound to stare at its second Test series sweep within the span of 17-months when the beleaguered tourists front up to the high-riding West Indies in the second and final Test of the two-match Sobers-Tissera Trophy series due to start at Antigua on Friday (3).
The island-nation’s previous 2-0 red-ball series whitewash was at the hands of Australia in Jan-Feb last year at home, while their cock-a-hoop hosts will seek their own back to back wins in the format for the first time in four years since blanking Bangladesh at home 2-0.
The Test comes hard on the heels of their biggest-ever loss to the hosts and their first by an innings, while Dhananjaya de Silva’s side is in desperate need to rediscover their mojo and how they do it against a fired up home team is anybody’s guess.
For the Lankans playing their first Test in over a 12-month period, only bright spots in an otherwise insipid showing in all facets of the game, came from skipper de Silva, pacer Milan Rathnayake and rookie spinner Sonal Dinusha, respectively.
The captain stood out with his 13th Test ton while steering them to a decent 308 all out in the first innings, but the rest of the big guns in the batting stakes such as Pathum Nissanka, Nishan Madushka, Kamindu Mendis and Kusal Mendis flopped big time.
Former captain Dinesh Chandimal too made two decent scores, but the 36-year-old right-hander needs a sizeable score to justify his retention in the squad for the foreseeable future, during the concluding Test of this short series.
Madushka and the Mendis duo will also come under the microscope in the final Test and it will be all the more interesting to see how the Kapila Wijegunawardene-helmed new selection panel will act in lieu of their continued failures ahead of the home series against India.
In the bowling department the two positives for the visitors were the efforts of Rathnayake who claimed 5-124 and young Turk Dinusha who returned 2-234 despite the Windies amassing a match-winning 626-9 declared.
This was on the back of the world record-breaking 401-run sixth wicket stand between home captain Roston Chase (194) and Amir Jangoo (233) which knocked the stuffing out of the tourists bowling attack.
The other conundrum facing the selectors would be how to balance its bowling attack after its bowlers were sent on a leather hunt in the preceding Test, and with the now-familiar injury-forced exit of pacer Lahiru Kumara in the series opener.
The tourists possess quick Vishwa Fernando and uncapped Isitha Wijesundera in their ranks and will need to make a call between the duo to replace Kumara.
In such a scenario frontline spinner Prabath Jayasuriya is guaranteed to be reduced to the status of a tourist for the second game running with recalled spinner Ramesh Mendis also forced to cool his heels in the changing room.
The selectors may also be prompted to look at uncapped batter Pasindu Sooriyabandara in light of lack of runs from opener Nishan Madushka, but the pressure is going to be on the visitors to hit back hard and avoid slipping further down the WTC leaderboard
