England skipper Andrew Strauss has called on his team mates to make a winning start against Sri Lanka in the first Test. The English players return to Test action for the first time since they got the better of Australia in the Ashes in the winter, kicking off the summer against Sri Lanka before the number one Test side in the world, India, come over.
Sri Lanka come to England having lost two of their star bowlers in Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga, while promising youngster Nuwan Pradeep is also out of the three-match Test series.
Despite being a team in transition Strauss was keen to remind over-confident supporters Sri Lanka still possess some dangerous players in Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
With a potentially testing summer to come, Strauss wants England to get off to a winning start in the first Test, which begins on Thursday at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff.
"It's a big challenge, it's an exciting Test summer ahead of us and there is a real determination to reconnect to what happened in the Ashes, but also to move on from that," said Strauss.
"We will be tested by two really good sides and we need to respond really well to that. I would be disappointed if we ease into this summer, we need to hit the ground running."
0 comments:
Post a Comment