Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore is confident that his players can bounce back and surprise England at Old Trafford if they are honest to themselves and accept the mistakes made at Edgbaston.

"We had a good review of the Edgbaston Test the other day at Chesterfield for about two hours and we admitted to our shortcomings," Whatmore revealed, speaking after net practice at Old Trafford.

He added: "Honesty is part of the game. If you accept your mistakes, you can move on. We have the opportunity to put it right at Old Trafford."

Trailing England 1-0, he seeks solace in the side's recent form. "Our record over the last nine months suggests that we are a better team than them.

"My personal belief is, that when you look at the big picture, it will tell you that we had nine wins, one draw with one loss. That loss was the result of one bad session of play, between lunch and tea on the first day."

"You can't win a Test match in a session, but you can go a long way towards losing it, and that was the sad tale of the second Test," he reasoned. "It becomes a different game when you make 162 on a wicket which looks more like a 250 track."

"The performance with the ball wasn't that good either, but it's asking too much on the bowlers to defend that kind of total. We need to put that one bad session out of our minds and reassure ourselves that we are playing good cricket," he said.

Old Trafford is, of course, familiar to Whatmore, as it is for off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who played two seasons here (1999 and 2000) with Lancashire. Whatmore coached Lancashire from 1997-99 before returning to Sri Lanka.

He hopes the local knowledge will come in handy. "This wicket I think will be a bit kinder to us, and with our knowledge and experience we can take a little bit of confidence into this Test."

"The pitch is dry and starting to crack," Whatmore added, meaning Muralitharan has an important role to play. "It's very hard, not that much of grass and it will be really tough on medium-pacers to bowl on. Murali did well here for Lancashire because he is able to bowl tightly, get the ball to turn and get a little bit of bounce."

So Whatmore's fingers are tightly crossed: "It's a pitch where you win the toss and bat first."

Sri Lanka are likely to make just one change to the team that lost at Birmingham. Fast bowler Dilhara Fernando has recovered from a debilitating back injury and after 18 overs against the MCC at Chesterfield he is now set to replace Buddika Fernando.

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