Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya de Silva said that the conditions in the United Kingdom (UK) are quite different to Asian countries and despite not having a full strenght team they are mentally strong to put on a fight in the three-match Test series against England, starting from Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, who lost a warm-up match against England Lions by seven wickets last week in Worcester, have not beaten England in a Test match since June 2014.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Dhananjaya said: "The conditions are quite different to Asian countries. We wanted to play a few matches, but that's what we get. We didn't go with the full-strength [team]. We have tried out a few players as well. The result didn't go our way, but we had the preparation, I think. It'll work in this match."
"Our mental state is good. Yes, we lost the practice match, but that match is there for our training. Within that, we got the preparation we wanted," he added.
The second match of the series will be played at Lord's, starting from August 29 and the final Test match of the series will take place at Kennington Oval on September 6.
Right-arm medium-fast bowler Milan Rathnayake will make his Test debut in the first Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, Sri Lanka Cricket announced on Tuesday.
Rathnayake will join Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando in Sri Lanka's pace attack, with the visitors named Prabath Jayasuriya as the only specialist spinner for the match starting Wednesday.
England are coming into the Sri Lanka series after a 3-0 series sweep against the Windies to move up to 6th place in the World Test Championship standings and will be keen to ride the momentum against the Lankans.
Sri Lanka squad:
Dhananjaya De Silva (Captain), Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Milan Rathnayake.
England to pay tribute to Thorpe ahead of 1st Test against Sri Lanka
England players will pay tribute to late batter Graham Thorpe before the start of the first Test match against Sri Lanka at Manchester on Wednesday.
The teams will be lining up for a moment of applause before their national anthems at the Old Trafford Stadium, with a tribute video being played on the big screen. Broadcaster Sky Sports will also be paying tribute to the batter in their coverage.
Thorpe, 55, took his own life on August 4, after years of battle with what his wife Amanda described as "major depression and anxiety".
Thorpe made his international debut in 1993 and was the mainstay of the English batting throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. The southpaw played 100 Tests and scored 6744 runs at an average of 44.66, with 16 hundreds and 39 fifties to his name. His highest score was 200*. In ODIs, the gritty batter scored 2380 runs at an average of 37.18 with 21 fifties.
Thorpe was also the team's batting coach and assistant coach until the 2021-22 Ashes tour to Australia, which England lost by 4-0.
