Cricket: Chandimal fit for second Test

“Dinesh should be fit he actually played this morning and he has batted the last couple of days,” said Sri Lanka cricket manager and selector Asanka Gurusinha. 

Chandimal missed the first Test due to a bout of pneumonia and was replaced by Danushka Gunathilaka who made his Test debut at Galle. 

On Herath’s injury Gurusinha said, “We have to see how he is going to come up in the next couple of days because his finger is pretty sore. We will give him till the last minute to make sure that he is fit. The day before the Test we will see whether he can drift the ball it will come down to that. If he can without pain he will play, otherwise we will have to look at different options. The finger is sore and painful.”

With Chandimal returning to the team, Gunathilaka will be the one to make room for him. In the absence of the Test skipper who bats at no. 4, Sri Lanka had to make a change to its batting by dropping Kusal Mendis who is being groomed for the No. 3 position to four. 

“It’s for just one game we pushed Kusal to four. Danushka was in form and you can’t bat him in the middle order. We couldn’t get him to open either because the openers were already there, that’s why we got Kusal to four for this Test,” added Gurusinha.