Had not a tour of this nature taken place, all what the selectors would have had to use as a yardstick, specially in selecting the borderline players, was their performances in the national tournament - the division Sara trophy, the standard of which is a far cry from playing against a touring side like England 'A'.
The question arising here is how much of thought will the selectors devote to picking those who performed well in the matches against the English tourists.
If the selectors go purely for experience and past form, then the tour by England 'A' would only be a wasted exercise with so much of time and money spent for nothing.
The selectors should be bold enough to make changes regardless of the big names in the game with the interest of the sport in mind.
One of the names in question over the past fortnight has been the uncertainty that hangs over the selection of middle-order batsman Hashan Tillekeratne. The obdurate left-hander was an automatic choice in the national team until a Courtney Walsh bouncer at Antigua last June broke his right forearm. Tillekeratne was much to blame for that injury because he came to bat without an arm guard on a vicious pitch.
Ever since then, Tillekeratne has been struggling to regain his form. The selectors have been sympathetic towards him on more than one occasion and picked him purely on past form for the Wills Quadrangular in Pakistan, the tour to India and quite recently the home series against Zimbabwe. However, in all these matches Tillekeratne has failed to exhibit the form that has brought him a Test average of 40.
For the record, Tillekeratne's come back record after injury is : (Wills one-day Quadrangular in Lahore) : 9 v South Africa, 28 v South Africa; (Test series in India) : 14 & 9 (1st Test, Mohali), 25 & 18 n.o. (3rd Test, Mumbai); (Test series at home v Zimbabwe) : 44 (1st Test, Kandy), 7 & 0 (2nd Test, SSC).
Tillekeratne's aggregate in seven Test innings is 117 runs for an average of 19.50.
What these figures imply is that Tillekeratne is still not back to his batting best and should be given sufficient time to regain his shattered confidence. As a last resort, he was given one final opportunity to make good in the unofficial Test against England 'A' at Moratuwa. But he could manage only 11 and 15, and the manner in which he tackled the fast-medium bowling of James Ormond on that placid track, was a sorry sight.
If these figures don't convince the selectors, they should at least take the advice given by former South African Test opener Barry Richards, who was brought down especially by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board to hone our skills against fast bowling on South African pitches.
Richards we understand, has found a lot of faults in Tillekeratne's technique and a certain lack of confidence as well.
With nine places in the team being automatic ones - the captain Arjuna Ranatunga, vice-captain Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Muthiah Muralitharan and Kumara Dharmasena, the selectors job will be to fill in the remaining seven slots.
On current form against England 'A' Russel Arnold should clinch the third opener's berth with Mahela Jayawardene as the fourth middle-order batsmen. Two wicket-keepers are essential for the first part of the tour which comprises apart from two Tests, three other side games. Pubudu Dasanayake, who excelled with the bat and behind the wickets in the games against England 'A' and Romesh Kaluwitharana should be the ones in the short list.
With Pramodya Wickremasinghe bowling so badly against England 'A' and youngster Nuwan Zoysa, still not prepared to play competitive cricket, Sri Lanka are suddenly facing a grave shortage of fast bowlers. As a result of it, left-armer Sajeeva de Silva should win a place. The fourth bowling place could go to Hemantha Boteju, who looks the most promising of the younger lot on display in the games against England 'A'. That leaves only the third spinner's berth, which should go left-armer Niroshan Bandaratilake. He troubled all the England 'A' batsmen and bagged 11 wickets in two unofficial Tests for an average of 23.27 bowling 106.3 overs.