CHANDERPAULSHENLEY, England, CMC
WITH PRECIOUS little time and opportunity to prepare for the Test series in stark contrast to previous tours of England West Indies take on an in-form Sri Lanka A-Team in their final tune-up before the first Test at Lord's, mindful that there is much improvement to be made on the evidence of their last match.
The three-day encounter starts today at the Denis Compton Oval in Shenley Park, an infrequently used ground north of London.
Coming on the heels of a less than convincing 29-run victory over an MCCXI at Arundel, the Caribbean side could find the Sri Lankans to be just as much of a handful and it is unlikely that captain Brian Lara will venture to question the competitiveness of the opposition as he did after the first day of the MCC XI fixture.
Despite the persistent bad weather and bitterly cold conditions, Sri Lanka-A have opened their tour impressively, winning seven limited-overmatches in succession, although the longer version of the game presents a very different challenge.
The team that extended that winning streak with victory over Kent on Wednesday included five players with senior international experience.
Leg-spin bowler Kaushal Lokuarachchi played one of his four Tests against West Indies in St. Lucia last year, while medium-fast bowler Thilan Thushara's only Test so far was the second and final match of that brief series in which West Indies completed a seven-wicket victory on the third afternoon in Kingston.
Left-handed middle-order batsman Jehan Mubarak and wicketkeeper-batsman Prasanna Jayawardene have played both Tests and limited-overs internationals, while medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara has featured in five limited-overs internationals for Sri Lanka.
HEADACHES
But whatever the pedigree of the opposition, West Indies have their own headaches with less than a week to go before they take on England at the spiritual headquarters of the game. The last time they met at Lord's 11 days ago, the visitors sped to victory in a high-scoring NatWest Series duel.
Of the established batsmen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been woefully out of form and his lack of confidence was patently obvious in scores of nought and 10 against the MCC.
Given the general inexperience of the squad, it is unthinkable that West Indies will start the series without the doughty left-hander, but he will need to get some runs under his belt over the next three days to regain some degree of self-belief.
Having been rested for the match at Arundel, vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan will be looking to get back into stride after a consistent run of scores in the NatWest Series and could also be handed the reins of captaincy if Lara chooses to sit out his first match of the tour.
While the feeling is that Dwayne Bravo will be vying with Dwayne Smith for the lone position available in the middle-order, Sylvester Joseph should be given the opportunity to try and make an impression and give the selectors the sort of dilemma they would not mind having.
SHORT OF WORK
In the bowling department, Fidel Edwards looked short of work against the MCC XI and should be expected to have another lengthy workout in tandem with fellow Barbadian fast bowler Tino Best, who, as usual, is eager to make an impression after missing out on the Arundel match.
