Toss West Indies opt to bat v Sri Lanka
Exactly ninety years after making their Test debut, West Indies opted to bat in their first day-night Test in Barbados against Sri Lanka.
With the sun out and a cool breeze blowing, Jason Holder wanted his batsmen to make first use of a greenish Kensington Oval surface against a side that’s missing both Dinesh Chandimal and Rangana Herath for reasons poles apart.
Suranga Lakmal, Sri Lanka’s 16th Test captain, said the visitors replaced Chandimal with the left-handed Danushka Gunathilaka while Akila Dananjaya was dropped for allrounder Dilruwan Perera. West Indies were unchanged.
For all the cricket that has dominated the headlines in this series, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Sri Lanka midway through the Second Test. The ball-tampering charge on Chandimal, the code violation from the visitors’ coaches and Jeffrey Vandersay’s premature departure from West Indies, has marred the build-up to their final encounter of the tour. They take the field trailing 1-0 in the series.
Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka: 1 Danushka Gunathilaka, 2 Mahela Udawatte, 3 Dhananjaya de Silva, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Roshen Silva, 6 Kusal Perera, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 8 Suranga Lakmal (capt), 9 Dilruwan Perera, 10 Kasun Rajitha, 11 Lahiru Kumara
West Indies: 1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Devon Smith, 3 Kieran Powell, 4 Shai Hope, 5 Roston Chase, 6 Shane Dowrich (wk), 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Devendra Bishoo, 9 Miguel Cummins, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Shannon Gabriel