The exciting Home Summer of International Cricket for England gets underway Thursday 26 May. It strarts with the First Test between England and Srilanka in Cardiff.
England's last test outing was the victorious Ashes series win Down Under in January 2011 their first since 1986/87 series. Srilanka in its last Test outing drew the three Test Home Series versus WestIndies 0-0.
England are currently ranked 3rd and Srilanka 4th in The ICC Test Rankings and this series will be strongly fought by both sides and is a tough one to call who will win it overall.
This is the first International both teams are playing since World Cup in 2011 in which England were thrashed by Srilanka in the Quarter Final by 10 wickets with Srilanka the eventual runners up in the tournament.
Srilanka go into this test match series as slight favourites due to their great run in the world cup and win over England Lions in their tour match that was recently concluded. Srilanka players are finiding their feet already and will carry this confidence into the first test. England have few players who haven't really found form in the county season so far. They maybe still feeling the ill effects of very long ashes tour followed by the World Cup 2011. England do have players who can significantly raise their performance and game to really challenge Srilanka.
The Pitch will play a very significant part in Cardiff which has traditionally seem to be a spinner friendly wicket and this would delight Srilanka with their quality of spinners and will pack their side with plenty of spinners. England when it comes to spin will be relying heavily on Swann to produce his magic as England will be reluctant to go in with 2 specialist spinners. The long dry weather will also assit the spinner with rough patches on the pitch and taking spin. I believe it will be very tough bowling for fast bowlers and medium pacers of both sides in Cardiff. I also feel that this will be a low scoring test match going all five days even up to the final hour. Also rain will play a vital part as well as it is forecasted throughout the Test match especially the first day. It will have drama all the way but not as dramatic as was in 2009 when England held on nine wickets down and game went to the final ball of the match.
I believe that in this low scoring affair Srilanka will just edge out winners against England to go 1-0 up into the second test.
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