Sri Lanka are set to face Pakistan in their own backyard, after being surprised by South Africa in the recently concluded series, and will be looking to perform much better than they did against the Proteas in Mahela Jayewardene's farewell series.
The first Test will start at the Galle International Stadium where the Proteas seamers toyed with the Lankan Lions and registered a comprehensive 153-run victory. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel ripped through the Lankan batting order and Pakistan will also be looking to exploit Lanka's weakness.
Like always, the visitors have quality seamers such as Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Talha, who are more than capable of creating troubles for the best of the batting orders. And they will be hoping to trouble the Islanders with the movement of the deck.
"We've played a lot of cricket here in Sri Lanka," Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq said. "You could say these conditions are not much different from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. But in Galle especially, there is a little bit of seam movement and movement in the air."
"That's something the seamers are really interested in," he added. "You need to bowl well and as batsmen, you need to negotiate the seam bowlers really well."
Meanwhile, the hosts received a setback after seamer Suranga Lakmal was ruled of the first Test. However, Shaminda Eranga will make a comeback from a hand injury, which he picked in the second Test against the Africans.
The Islanders still have some good bowling options in both pace and spin departments. Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Kulasekara have proved their worth every now and then, while Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera, despite being ineffective in last series, are good bowling options.
"Eranga is fully fit but with Suranga out of the series, either Eranga or Suranga have been injured from the Bangladesh series onwards," said Mathews. "We didn't have both of them together, which would have been a very formidable attack."
"But I still have good options in Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Pradeep," he added. "They've bowled pretty well in the recent past. And the two spinners (Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera) have been bowling magnificently. I feel that I've got the bowling attack to take 20 wickets."
Misbah is not worried about Herath's threat and insisted that Pakistan have some experienced batsmen in the line-up that have negotiated the left-arm spinner quite well in last few series.
"I think we played Herath pretty well in the last series," Misbah insisted. "It's more or less the same batting order, and the same guys who will play him again. Everybody is confident about that."
Expected Line-ups: Sri Lanka: Upul Tharanga, Kaushal Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews (c), Kithuruwan Vithanage, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Dilruwan Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Rangana Herath and Shaminda Eranga.
Pakistan: Khurram Manzoor, Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Abdur Rehman, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal and Junaid Khan.
Where to Watch Live:
The first Test is scheduled for 10:00 am local (10:00 am IST, 4:30 am GMT) start with live coverage on Ten Cricket and Ten HD in India. Catch ball-by-ball update of the match online HERE. Catch the action live on TV on Ten Sports in Sri Lanka, while viewers can also live stream the action HERE.
Viewers in the US can watch the game Live on Willow TV while the match can also be live streamed HERE. Watch the match in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa on SuperSport and live online HERE.
