Sri Lanka will play ten Tests this year

by Rex Clementine

The national cricket team is set to play ten Test matches this year, a number that would please many after they ended up featuring in just six Test matches last year. This year’s Tests are the most by a Sri Lankan side since 2018 where they played 12 Tests.

The one-off Test match against Afghanistan will get underway on Friday at SSC and then Sri Lanka will travel to Bangladesh for a multi format series that includes two Tests.

England will be hosting Sri Lanka for three Tests in August. The first Test will take place at Old Trafford while the next two games will be played in London at The Oval and Lord’s.

This will be the first time Sri Lanka will play a three match Test series in England since 2011. Sri Lanka’s tours to England in 2014 and 2016 were reduced to two Test matches.

This will be followed by two Test matches at home against New Zealand in September and then the team will be in South Africa for Christmas to engage in two Tests making ten Test matches in all in 2024.

The national cricket team also has a new Test captain in Dhananjaya de Silva. He is expected to speak to the media shortly in his first briefing as the nation’s 18th Test captain. He takes over from Dimuth Karunaratne, who had a long stint as Test captain stretching for five years.

The highlight of Dimuth’s captaincy was winning a Test series in South Africa in his very first assignment. Sri Lanka are the only Asian team to have won a Test series in South Africa.

The most Tests Sri Lanka have featured in a year is 13 in 2017. In 2001 too the national cricket team engaged in 13 Test matches with England, India, West Indies and Zimbabwe touring the island.

The least Tests Sri Lanka have played in a year is one in 1990. Between 1987 to 1990, Sri Lanka played only seven Test matches, all of them overseas. No cricket took place in the island from 1987 to 1992 due to the war.

With T-20 franchises mushrooming around the globe, Test cricket has taken a back seat like in the case of South Africa who are sending a second-string team to New Zealand to engage in a Test series while their franchise league is in full swing simultaneously.

SLC’s efforts to organize a Test match outside the World Test Championship like in the case against Afghanistan need to be commended.

India is one country that has not taken the foot off the peddle from Test cricket playing around 12 Test matches a year on a regular basis despite there being huge demands for their T-20 league, the IPL.