The last time Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe were locked in a Test match contest in Colombo and in Harare, the difference between the two sides was Rangana Herath, the most successful left-arm bowler in Test cricket history with 433 wickets. Herath destroyed the Zimbabwe batting in both Tests played in Harare in 2016 with a generous haul of 19 wickets leading his country from the front in the absence of regular Test skipper Angelo Mathews who was injured. When Zimbabwe returned the visit in 2017 for a one-off Test played at the R Premadasa Stadium, Graeme Cremer, the Zimbabwe captain backed his batters to counter Herath’s spin threat but to no avail as Herath with a match bag of 11 wickets once again proved who the master was.
Herath is no longer the kingpin of the Lankan bowling attack having retired gracefully from international cricket in November 2018, leaving the burden of bowling Sri Lanka to victory on the shoulders of his spin partner Dilruwan Perera. The pair proved a formidable combination conjuring up 295 wickets in 28 Tests together. However without the support of Herath, Perera has found it tough going and for the first time in his 41-Test career went through a Test series without taking a single wicket in the last series he played against Pakistan in December 2019. Thus the two-Test tour of Zimbabwe will be a test of Perera’s skills whether he still has the urge and the drive at 37 to bowl his country to victory. He is the leader of the spin pack with two inexperienced spinners in Lasith Embuldeniya and Lakshan Sandakan to support him. That combination didn’t work well in Pakistan as Embuldeniya was the only bowler who looked effective on those batting surfaces. Left-armer Embuldeniya at 23 is still in the embryo stages of Test cricket but has shown promise that with time he could end up as the successor to Herath. He is improving with every game and success in Zimbabwe would only enhance his growing reputation and confidence.
The upcoming two-Test series is important to both sides for different reasons. Sri Lankan would want to put back the heavy defeat they suffered at the hands of Pakistan and get back to winning ways in the longest format of the game which they are still at least making a fight and keeping their heads up in comparison to the two white-ball formats where their performances over the past few years has seen them sink faster than the Titanic.
However beating Zimbabwe on their home soil without the likes of a match-winning bowlers like Muralitharan or Herath is not going to be easy. Zimbabwe showed how much they have improved as a Test side in recent years when they toured Sri Lanka in 2017 – setting the home side a challenging fourth innings target of 388 to chase, and on their last Test series in Bangladesh in 2018 where they stunned the hosts to defeat by 151 runs in the first Test at Sylhet to record their first away win in 17 years. Hamilton Masakadza led Zimbabwe to that historic win where they drew the two-Test series one-all.
Since then Zimbabwe had lost their way and their cricket board was banned by the ICC in July 2019 for government interference into cricket. But following a meeting with the ICC top brass, Zimbabwe Cricket were able to convince them that there was no outside influence in the running of its board which eventually led to them being reinstated as a Full Member of the ICC three months later. As a result Zimbabwe Cricket regained access to ICC funds and their teams were back playing in ICC tournaments the first of which is the Under 19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. Zimbabwe Cricket has been crippled by lack of funds due to the country’s deep economic decline and they have cancelled several international cricket tours to their country as a result, Sri Lanka being one of the victims in 2013. The ICC sanctions threatened to further cripple the board, but thankfully the matter was resolved that has led to the reinstating of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka which is due to commence on January 19 at Harare Sports Club.
Zimbabwe will have a new Test captain in 33-year-old left-hand middle-order bat Sean Williams who succeeded Masakadza this month after the former captain had retired from the game to take up the appointment of Zimbabwe Cricket’s director of cricket.
It is a strange coincidence that Sri Lanka has the knack of breaking the ice on cricket tours to other countries. Only last month they sent their Test side to Pakistan for Test cricket to return to that country after an impasse of ten years and now they are going to become the first country to play Test cricket in Zimbabwe since October 2017.
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