Toss Sri Lanka chose to bat vs New Zealand
Sri Lanka won the toss again in Galle and unsurprisingly chose to bat again, which means New Zealand will bat last once again on what is expected to be another turner. Dhananjaya de Silva said the pitch looked “firmer than the last one with less grass” after Sri Lanka won their sixth toss in a row and seventh out of eight this year.
Peiris, 27, has played 41 first-class games for 172 wickets at an average of 24.37.
New Zealand went unchanged after putting up a strong fight in the first Test, which they lost by a not-so-big margin of 63 runs.
There are short and sharp showers expected in Galle, though at the time of the toss it was bright and sunny.
New Zealand would want to build on their promising performance in the first Test before their India tour. They are fourth on the table with 42.85% points.
Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karuanaratne, 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kusal Mendis (wk), 8 Milan Rathnayake, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Nishan Peiris, 11 Asitha Fernando
New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee (capt), 10 Ajaz Patel, 11 Will O’Rourke