Big picture: Shades of 2019 in 2024
A washed-out Test against Afghanistan earlier this month means the last time New Zealand played a Test was in March, while they haven’t had a competitive fixture since the World Cup in June.
They’re still nominally well-placed in the WTC standings in third place, with three wins and three losses, but two Tests in spin-friendly Galle – where they’ve never won – followed by three more in India reads a fairly tall task.
As for Sri Lanka, they’ve had a fairly rollercoaster year. Good performances in the early part of the year against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Bangladesh were juxtaposed by a horror T20 World Cup showing, which was then followed by a quite excellent ODI series win against India at home. In England too, they were in danger of being embarrassed but a splendid display in the third Test ensured they would come into this home series with that winning bounce.
That last win could still prove pivotal in their quest for an unlikely WTC final berth, with four of their next six Tests at home. The weather, however, might be following the visitors over from Greater Noida in India, with rain expected across the first Test.
Sri Lanka: WLLWW (last five Tests, most recent first)
New Zealand: DLLWW
In the spotlight: Jayasuriya and Ravindra
Team news: Who will be NZ’s second seamer?
Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Kusal Mendis (wk), 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kamindu Mendis, 8 Ramesh Mendis, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Asitha Fernando, 11 Lahiru Kumara/Jeffrey Vandersay
New Zealand (probable): 1 Tom Latham, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee (capt), 10 Matt Henry/Ben Sears/Will O’Rourke, 11 Ajaz Patel.
Pitch and conditions: Rain on the horizon
There’s rain expected across all five days of the Test, including the rest day on day four. With the Galle surface usually deteriorating by days four and five, winning the toss and batting first is almost mandatory.