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Ruchira Perera makes debut

Six months is a long time for a country to be away from Test cricket and Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunga made no bones about his team's chances against India when he said: ``We are at a disadvantage coming into Test cricket after such a long lay off''.

Sri Lanka take on India in the second match of the Asian Test championships at the SSC grounds from today, and the captain is hoping his batsmen will cut out the loose shots they have been playing in the one-day games leading up to the Test.

Since beating England at the Oval in August last year, Sri Lanka have been involved in three one-day tournaments which produced a total of 16 matches.

``We will try to get used to playing long innings quickly. It's more like a mental game than anything else,'' said Ranatunga.

``The advantage will be with us especially with Javagal Srinath not there and that we are playing at home,'' he said.

The shell-shocked Indians are still recovering from their 46-run defeat to Pakistan in the opening match of the championships played at Calcutta last week. They allowed Pakistan from being 26 for 6 to recover and beat them in one of the biggest come backs in Test cricket.

Sri Lanka are likely to go in with a 3-1 combination giving 22-year-old left-arm seamer Ruchira Perera his first Test cap. Perera played in a couple of one-day games in the Carlton and United series in Australia and looks a better bet ahead of Erik Upashantha, this being his home ground.

Perera is expected to pair off with another left-armer Chaminda Vaas with Chandika Hathurusingha playing the role of the third seamer. The pitch has a fair share of grass and Ranatunga, who knows the nature of it more than anyone else, even hinted at playing four seamers.

Thirty-year-old Hathurusingha will be making a return to Test cricket after a three-year break. He appeared in the last of his 24 Tests against Australia at Adelaide in 1996. The former opener will bat lower down the order giving a lot of depth to the batting which runs down to number eight.

Also recalled are left-handed opener Russel Arnold, who takes the place of the injured Sanath Jayasuriya and left-arm spinner Niroshan Bandaratilake, who will replace Muthiah Muralitharan who has undergone an operation in his bowling arm.

Ranatunga was not duly worried over the loss of his two key players for this Test. ``We need them for the World Cup. They should be 100 percent fit by then,'' he said.

Arnold last played against the West Indies at Antigua in 1997, and Bandaratilake against New Zealand last year. Off-spinner Ruwan Kalpage has also been recalled to the squad.

With Atapattu declared fit from a groin injury and Aravinda de Silva also showing no signs of his injured thigh, Sri Lanka's will field a strong batting line-up, which in the absence of Srinath will be tested by the experienced fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad and leg-spinner Anil Kumble.

Srinath who took 13 wickets in the Calcutta Test and shared the 'Man of the Match' award with Pakistani Saeed Anwar will be sorely missed here. The SSC pitch would have been more to his liking. Bengal's teenaged right-arm medium-pacer Laxmi Ratan Shukla is expected to fill Srinath's shoes and make his Test debut.

With Ashish Nehra, the 20-year left-arm seamer from Delhi also likely to make his debut, India will have a new look bowling line-up with Prasad and Kumble as the only experienced men.

India have five bonus points from the Calcutta Test and need to win here to ensure their place in the final in Dhaka in a fortnight. Their chances depend heavily on how their bowlers perform on the grassy pitch which is expected to assist the seamers on the first two days before settling down into a batting surface.

Today's contest will be the 20th Test between the two countries. India have won seven, Sri Lanka one, with 11 drawn.

Twelve points are awarded for a win and bonus points for batting and bowling in the first 100 overs of the first innings. Pakistan by virtue of beating India in the first match are on top with 17 points followed by India with five. Sri Lanka will be looking for their first points in this contest.

The teams:

SRI LANKA (from): Russel Arnold, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga (captain), Hashan Tillekeratne, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Chandika Hathurusingha, Chaminda Vaas, Ruchira Perera, Niroshan Bandaratilake, Erik Upashantha, Ruwan Kalpage.

INDIA (from): Vengipurappu Laxman, Sadagopan Ramesh, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Sourav Ganguly, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ashish Nehra, Harbajan Singh, Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar.

UMPIRES: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) and Russel Tiffin (Zimbabwe), 3rd umpire - Salim Badar (Pakistan)

MATCH REFEREE: Cammie Smith (West Indies).