Pakistan had arrived in Sri Lanka with no Test victory up to now 12 months. However, their latest four-wicket triumph in Galle, albeit a nervy final-innings chase, has put them in a positive place. The guests now require solely a draw within the upcoming Test to clinch the two-match collection.
“The motivation is there — the players know how important it is to be picking up Test points, and how important it is to win at home,” Silverwood instructed reporters on Sunday.
“Listening to the chat in the dressing room… they are going to come out fighting and push much harder.”
In their final Test, aside from Dhananjaya de Silva — who made 122 and 82 — their batsmen didn’t ship in Galle, lots of them stepping into the 20s and 30s however not constructing on their begins.
But Pakistan coach Grant Bradburn mentioned the crew needed to be “number one” on the earth.
“We want to entertain, we want to be dynamic,” Bradburn mentioned.
Sri Lanka are enjoying their first Test match on the Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) after 5 years — a match they misplaced to England by 42 runs, when Silverwood was England’s bowling coach.
“I know what to expect from this venue,” mentioned Silverwood.
“If you want to be good and competitive all round the world, you have to learn to play under different conditions”, he added.
One of the important thing areas that Sri Lanka should give attention to is their fielding, which proved expensive within the first Test at Galle.
“If we analyse the last Test match, if we are honest, we fell short,” mentioned Silverwood.
“The dropped catches proved costly. This is not the first time it’s happened… There were stages when we let them get away, at one point they scored at five runs an over, we need to drag that back.”
Sri Lanka has performed their final seven residence Tests at Galle, a venue which is beneficial to their spinners.
Pakistan might need to embrace one other seamer because the SSC is thought to supply bounce and motion, however must think about whether or not to make modifications to a profitable facet.
“This ground is going to be a different examination for us, with different skills required,” Bradburn mentioned, including the entire squad is “fit and ready” for choice.
“Certainly we need to adapt to the conditions that we find on each of the days, and on each of the phases of the game.”
Silverwood, a quick bowler, gave credit score to Pakistan’s tempo spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, saying they “make life difficult” for any batting line up.
“The two fast bowlers that Pakistan have are very good… they are good at their craft, they have good pace and they don’t give many runs away,” mentioned Silverwood.
Sri Lanka have gained 20 of the 43 Tests performed at SSC and misplaced solely 9, together with the latest Test it hosted, in opposition to England 5 years in the past.
Pakistan have performed there on six events and have a one win, one loss file with the remainder drawn.
(With AFP Inputs)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com