The left-arm leg-spinner played the last of his 17 Tests for his country four years ago against India at Ahmedabad finishing with a career haul of 37 wickets (avg. 38.97). He has been overlooked since, despite being a consistent wicket-taker for Panadura SC in the country's premier cricket competition - the Sara trophy.
Last season (1996-97), Anurasiri topped the Sri Lankan first-class bowling averages taking 39 wickets at a cost of 12.15 runs apiece from nine matches.
SILVA OUT
Anurasiri will replace another left-arm spinner Jayantha Silva, who bowled poorly in the first Test at Kandy which Sri Lanka won by eight wickets to go one-up in the mini two-Test series.
Silva failed to take a wicket in the Zimbabwe second innings, while spin colleague Muthiah Muralitharan captured seven, and finished with a match bag of 12 wickets.
``Anurasiri has been doing well in club cricket and we thought we could use a little bit of his experience,'' said Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga.
FINGER INJURIES
``It is a very sad situation that we are faced with. With the exception of off-spinner Muralitharan, we don't have quality left-arm spinners nor leg-spin bowlers, around,'' said Ranatunga.
With spinner Kumara Dharmasena and left-arm fast-medium bowler Sajeeva de Silva, both suffering from injured fingers, and key paceman Chaminda Vaas suffering from a slight temperature (he did not practice yesterday), Tamil Union's right-arm fast-medium bowler Mario Villavarayan has been brought into the squad as a precautionary measure.
Ranatunga said, he expected a better fight from Zimbabwe and added: ``We may have to work a little harder to beat them. We are capable of doing that''.
Zimbabwe coach and former captain David Houghton said that his side, though beaten, had not lost their confidence.
TOO NEGATIVE
``We made a mistake of being too negative in the first innings to get bowled out for 140. We just tried to occupy the crease. We weren't positive enough in scoring runs. We corrected it in the second innings and batted positively to put more runs on the board and more pressure on the bowlers,'' said Houghton.
``We are not the greatest bowling side in the world, but we are capable of bowling sides out. Marvan Atapattu was the only batsman who really dominated our bowling. You take his double century out of the Sri Lankan innings, and what you are left with is only 246 runs from the other eight batsmen,'' said Houghton.
``We have enough ammunition to win a Test match if we bowl in the right place. Our spinners on the first two days didn't bowl the right length. They were either too short or too full. We practiced hard for two days and I am quite confident they will bowl well,'' he said.
GUY WHITTAL IN
Zimbabwe are expected to recall all-rounder Guy Whittall, who was forced to miss the first Test because of a knee injury sustained in the warm-up game at Matara probably at the expense of leg-spinner Adam Huckle.
``Huckle is a match-winner, but he didn't bowl well in the first Test. He is the type of bowler who would one day take none for 100 and on another day, take 7 for 100. On his day he will bowl sides out,'' said Houghton.
Zimbabwe are likely to go in with a combination of three seamers and two spinners on a pitch which is expected to have a fair amount of bounce and spin. It will be the first pitch prepared for a Test after quite some time by former SSC stalwart turned curator, Ranil Abeynaike.
The teams:
SRI LANKA (from): Arjuna Ranatunga (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Roshan Mahanama, Aravinda de Silva, Hashan Tillekeratne, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Chaminda Vaas, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Muthiah Muralitharan, Don Anurasiri, Mario Villavarayan.
ZIMBABWE (from): Alistair Campbell (captain), Gavin Rennie, Grant Flower, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower, Craig Wishart, Guy Whittall, Paul Strang, Heath Streak, Andy Whittall, Bryan Strang, Adam Huckle.
UMPIRES: K.T. Francis (Sri Lanka) and Saleem Badar (Pakistan)
MATCH REFEREE: Raman Subba Row (England).