Mahela happy at Marvan's return

Sri Lanka team leaves for Australia on Tuesday

By Ranjan Anandappa

CRICKET: While welcoming the return of Marvan Atapattu to the Australian bound Sri Lanka team, Mahela Jayawardena predicted that the former Sri Lanka skipper and opening batsman would bat in his usual No. 1 slot.

'It's good that Marvan is back in the side. It is always good to have him back as he is an experienced campaigner and specially against Australia we need to have him around," said Mahela.

Jayawardena and Muralitharan had just returned from India after receiving their CEAT Cricket Awards in Mumbai, India, and both were in their final stage of physical training at the SLC Gymnasium. Muralitharan was awarded the Best Bowler and CEAT International Cricketer of the Year Award while Jayawardena received the Best Batsman's Award.

"Atapattu is an opening batsman. There is no doubt about that, we have the other batsmen lined up to bat at various other places, so obviously his job would be opening the batting", the Sri Lankan captain said. Mahela said that there are four opening batsmen in the squad, and he will have to see once they get to Australia how things go in the two practice games, "we'll have to see how everyone fares, but experience counts a lot and the final decision will be made thereafter.

He further said that the pitches are going to be different from the one's at home and that's a factor that we'll have to adjust to. It is not going to be easy, but those are the challenges we got to face while playing in different countries and make sure that we get used to those conditions," Mahela added.

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena said that he would prefer to go on a 'low - key' regarding Muttiah Muralitharan's world bowling record and focus more on a high performance on the Sri Lanka-Australia two Tests series.

The Sri Lankan ace off spinner Muralitharan is on the threshold of recapturing his world best bowling feat from Shane Warne which he lost some years ago. Australian Shane Warne retired from international cricket. Muralitharan has already taken 700 Test wickets and needs another nine wickets to surpass Warne's 708 wickets.

The Sri Lanka team leaves on October 23 (Tuesday) for Australia to play two Tests and a couple of side games.

'Murali' most probably will break the record, may be in Australia or elsewhere and we should not lay a lot emphasis on that said Mahela.

"We have already spoken to Murali on the important aspect of playing good and competitive cricket in Australia. If he could break the record in Australia it is great. If not, he could do it later on, but we should not make a major issue of it," he said.

Sri Lanka's Test record against Australia is not an encouraging one. The Lankans have still to win a Test match on Australian soil. In the 18 Test matches played so far Australia has won 11 and Sri Lanka only one, that win came at Asgiriya. There are six drawn encounters.

After a series of limited over games, Sri Lanka will have to switch back on to the longer version, but the players are quite used to the change. Going on a tour to Australia is not easy going. It is more of a challenge Jayawardena said.

"We should make sure that we should get back to the longer game quickly and get on with sorting out our techniques. The boys are quite capable of doing it, as we have been doing a lot of specific training in past few days. Once we get to Australia, we got two practice games and a few practice sessions. Basically about twelve days of training is available and it will be up to the Sri Lankans to get acclimatised and be prepared for the Tests.

Sri Lanka's batting display against the Englishmen in the recently concluded ODI series was disappointing. There were only five half centuries scored. The Lankans batting fell into pieces and it caused the downfall. Sri Lanka lost the series 3/2.

"Our batting was disappointing. There is no secret about it. However, our endeavour is to work harder and get to our normal form. We know what we are capable of. Lot of players and teams go through this trauma and unfortunately it happened to us against England at home. We are working very hard and hopefully we could come back to our usual form quickly," said the Sri Lankan captain.

He rated the Australians, as No.1 side in the world and it is going to be a big challenge for the Lankan team to go out there and play Tests.

Sri Lanka's bowling has been quite consistent during the last six to twelve months, and we should make sure that we do not neglect that area. We got to maintain that consistency and improve from what we have built up," said Mahela.

Talking about the inclusion of the six foot left-hander Michael Van Dort and Tilan Samaraweera, Jayawardena said that Michael has been in the Test squad for quite a long time and has performed consistently and there is no question about his ability and what he has done in the past, Samaraweera has been in the 'A' team and scoring lot of runs and it is good to have him back as an experienced player and in Australian conditions, he could be very handy.

The team also includes left arm paceman Chanaka Welegedera who was been hit by injury, but has fought his way into the national side with some good performances in the 'A' side.

The team: Mahela Jayawardena (Captain), Kumar Sangakkara (Vice captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Silva, Farveez Maharoof, Michael Van Dort, Jehan Mubarak, Tilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga. Prasanna Jayawardena, Chanaka Welegedera, Malinga Bandara, Marvan Atapattu.

Stand byes: T.M.Dilshan, Nuwan Kulasekera.

Officials: Sriyan Samararatne (Manager), Trevor Bayliss (Coach), Paul Farbrace (Assistant Coach), Tommy Simsek (Physio), Jade Roberts (Trainer), Nalin de Alwis (Computer Analyst), Lal Thamel (Masseur), Ranjith Madurasinghe (Selector on tour)