“Even with Lahiru Kumara, we have tried very hard to get him to play injury-free,” de Silva said ahead of the second Test against India. “At the moment, given our resources, Lahiru Kumara is the best match to partner Asitha. Asitha’s line and length is perfect, and Lahiru Kumara has the pace. With the resources we have now, these are the best players.
Chameera has played 12 Tests in his career, but the last of these was in 2021. Given his history of injury and his importance to the limited-overs teams, Sri Lanka have chosen to preserve Chameera for the white-ball formats.
The selectors and management have not discussed a serious plan to broaden the pool of faster bowlers available for multi-day cricket.
“Foreign pace bowlers have taken five wickets in Galle, for instance, but recently, none of our seamers have done that at Galle or SSC. Our fast bowlers lack that confidence. If they can raise their game a little bit – [by] a few percent – we can move forward better as a team”
Dhananjaya de Silva, SL captain
“I’d also like for there to be two or three bowlers who can bowl at more than 140kph, but unfortunately we only have one bowler like that [in the Test set-up],” de Silva said. “For now I haven’t been given a huge plan about about who we could bring into the Test set-up. I’m hoping we will produce more cricketers like that in future. “
Fielding two fast bowlers in an attack has been a feature of de Silva’s captaincy, with recent ex-coaches such as Chris Silverwood and Sanath Jayasuriya also having focused on developing fast-bowling talent. Through the back half of the 2010s, Sri Lanka had relied so heavily on spin at home that they had grown accustomed to playing only one seamer.
“Every match we’ve played under me, we’ve had two pace bowlers, when in the past, we would only bowl one,” he said. “I believe pacers have a role to play in Sri Lanka. If your fast bowlers can get wickets here, they can get wickets anywhere. That’s something we have to learn quickly.”
“Foreign pace bowlers have taken five wickets in Galle, for instance, but recently, none of our seamers have done that at Galle or SSC,” de Silva said. “Our fast bowlers lack that confidence. If they can raise their game a little bit – [by] a few percent – we can move forward better as a team.”
