Former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews became the sixth cricketer from his country to play 100 Tests on Sunday as the hosts won the toss and elected to bat against Pakistan in the second Test, at Galle.
Mathews, 35, was feted by Sri Lanka Cricket at the start of the second Test in Galle as the hosts look to bounce back from their opening loss in the two-match series.
The veteran cricketer made his debut in 2009 and hopes to play for a few more years.
“It would be nice to get to 10,000 test runs. Not many guys have done that and that’s something that I want to achieve,” the 35-year-old Mathews had said on the eve of the landmark match.
“Jimmy Anderson is my inspiration. At the age of 40, he’s still delivering and he wants to do it for a couple of more years. It’s the drive that you have. This is not going to stop here and I still have few more years left. Age is just a number and I’ll work on my fitness.”
Coming back to the match, teenage left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage is making his Test debut while fast bowler Asitha Fernando returns after recovering from Covid.
Pakistan have also made two changes, with left-arm spinner Nauman Ali coming in for injured quick Shaheen Shah Afridi and Azhar Ali making way for left-hand batsman Fawad Alam.
The tourists, led by Babar Azam, won the opening match by four wickets on a tense fifth day at the same venue.
Teams
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Oshada Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wkt), Ramesh Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Dunith Wellalage, Asitha Fernando
Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), Fawad Alam, Agha Salman, Mohammad Nawaz, Yasir Shah, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Naseem Shah
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI), Rod Tucker (AUS)
TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
With AFP inputs
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