Sri Lanka sweat on Lakmal fitness

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Sri Lanka continued to wait on the fitness of fast bowler Suranga Lakmal ahead of this week's first Test against England at Lord's in London.

Sri Lanka continued to wait on the fitness of fast bowler Suranga Lakmal ahead of this week's first Test against England at Lord's in London.

Lakmal injured a hamstring during the ODI series against the same opposition earlier this month – and was replaced by spinner Rangana Herath.

"Lakmal is a huge loss but everyone saw yesterday that our pace bowlers did brilliantly on this track. We have a good pace attack so we can do much better on this tour," said team-mate Prasanna Jayawardene. "If he's fit, he'll definitely come in."

The tourists enjoyed some solid preparation during a drawn four-day fixture against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road recently, with the right-handed Kaushal Silva and left-handed Lahiru Thirimanne cherishing big centuries.

Spinner Dilruwan Perera and fast bowler Dhammika Prasad, meanwhile, shared eight key wickets – before former captain Kumar Sangakkara and opener Dimuth Karunaratne put in vital cameos.

"All the boys did well – fielding, batting, bowling. So we are going for the Test series, 100 percent," added Jayawardene. "It's not easy coming from the sub-continent, we have to adapt to the conditions very early, adjust our technique when batting and bowling in these conditions. After the ODI series loss, they are coming hard, we're expecting that."

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