Sri Lanka announced their playing XI for the second Test against New Zealand in Galle, on Wednesday (September 25). In a slightly surprising move, off-spinner Ramesh Mendis was dropped in favour of debutant Nishan Peiris. Here's why.
62 wickets in Galle: Why has Ramesh Mendis been dropped?
Since making his Test debut in 2021 against England, Mendis has turned Galle into a fortress of sorts. It helps that Sri Lanka rarely play him abroad, and never outside Asia as yet, but 62 of his 69 career wickets have come at this very venue. Alongside left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, a combined total of 124 out of their 157 Test wickets have come here.
Both Tests for this home series against New Zealand are in Galle, and so it was expected that both players would play both matches. But for the second Test, Mendis has been dropped in favour of the uncapped Nishan Peiris. Mendis' figures in the first Test were not bad – 3-101 and 3-83, even if he was a touch expensive in the first innings.
But speaking after the first Test, spin-bowling coach Craig Howard suggested he was not fully satisfied with the slow bowlers' performance, especially from the point of view of keeping the runs down: "If we were able to hold our line and length for longer, it would have been much more difficult for the New Zealand batters to rotate the strike the way they did, and we'd have limited the boundary balls as well. We pay heavy attention to controlling the run rate, and we didn't do that today."
On Mendis specifically, he said, "Ramesh Mendis hasn't played a red-ball game for probably a few months now. He's been on an England tour not playing, and the LPL (Lanka Premier League) prior to that. He was probably a fraction off from a length-and-line point of view."
Also read: Why India should rest Jasprit Bumrah for the second Bangladesh Test
Mendis' last Test match was in July 2023. He has since played 10 domestic first-class matches, the last of which came in April this year, ahead of the Lanka Premier League. Representing Galle District in the National Super League 4-Day Competition, he took 15 wickets in four matches at an average of 25.3 and economy rate of 3.5 runs per over.
Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva echoed Howard's thoughts in his post-match press conference, explaining why he took up the ball more often than expected: "Ramesh Mendis occasionally bowled well, but he didn't bowl as well as I expected - I think that's fair of me to say. So this is why I had to take the ball. I know what my skills are and what the team needs."
Why have Sri Lanka picked Nishan Peiris as Mendis' replacement?
Given the team management's assessment of his performance, it seems an understandable and fair call to exclude Mendis from the playing XI. His replacement, Peiris, also has a record that merits national team consideration.
In 41 first-class matches since 2015-16, Peiris has taken 172 wickets at an average of just under 25. He played alongside Mendis for Galle District in the 2023-24, and in fact outbowled his partner.
Peiris was the highest wicket-taker in the competition, with 35 scalps to his name in six matches. He conceded under 15 runs per wicket, and finished with four five-wicket hauls, including 5-42 against Kandy in the final of the competition. Registering an economy rate of 2.4 runs per over, Sri Lanka will be hopeful he provides more control than they saw from Mendis in the first Test, whilst maintaining the wicket-taking threat.
Sri Lanka playing XI for second Test against New Zealand
- Dimuth Karunaratne
- Pathum Nissanka
- Dinesh Chandimal
- Angelo Mathews
- Kamindu Mendis
- Dhananjaya de Silva (c)
- Kusal Mendis (wk)
- Nishan Peiris
- Prabath Jayasuriya
- Milan Rathnayake
- Asitha Fernando
- In: Nishan Peiris, Milan Rathnayake
- Out: Ramesh Mendis, Lahiru Kumara
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