“Angie, you have an amazing team. You have an amazing future.”
Hearing this last section of Kumar Sangakkara’s retirement speech, Angelo Mathews may well have wondered to himself: “Really?” Because without Sangakkara, and without Mahela Jayawardene, who played his final Test last year, Sri Lanka are bracing themselves for a long and arduous rebuilding phase, with the “amazing future” a dot on the horizon. In their home season so far, Sri Lanka have lost two out of three Tests to Pakistan and are clearly not the momentum team as they go into a series decider against India.
Looking around his dressing room, Mathews will not see too many battle-hardened faces. Apart from himself and Rangana Herath – the only two players in the side with more than 50 Test caps – the most experienced player in the likely Sri Lanka eleven at the Sinhalese Sports Club is Dhammika Prasad, who will be playing his 23rd Test.
It is imperative, therefore, that the senior-ish players in their side, such as Prasad, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, add an extra level of consistency to their game and take on leadership roles to ease the pressure off Mathews and Herath.
They will have to begin doing this right away. Sri Lanka are likely to be without one of their main wicket-taking weapons at the SSC, with Tharindu Kaushal a doubtful starter after an Umesh Yadav bouncer bruised the thumb of his bowling hand during the second Test. Dilruwan Perera will offer more control but less incision.
Without Sangakkara, it is unclear how the batting order will resolve itself. Plenty of questions remain to be answered. Will Upul Tharanga slot in at No. 3, or will it be Thirimanne? Will Kusal Perera come in for Jehan Mubarak, and if so, will he keep wickets? Will the two new left-handers in the line-up be able to cope with R Ashwin’s round-the-wicket threat?
India will have to make a couple of forced personnel changes too, but they know to a fair degree what they can expect from most of their players. They are a lot further along the road in terms of experience and know-how, and know what the core of their team for the next four-five years will look like. Their batting, save for a couple of hiccups, is clicking into gear nicely, and their bowling attack, in recent times, has never looked as consistently threatening as it did at the P Sara Oval.
Even so, they have had to come back from behind to level this Test series, and will know, in all honesty, that they should have been 2-0 up already. Having let Sri Lanka off the hook in Galle, they will be itching to close out the series with a win, and show that they have become better players for the bruising experiences they have suffered on the road, with greater staying power and match awareness.