Not ideal preparation for India tour: Matthews

Mumbai, Oct 29 (IANS) Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said Wednesday that his side was never reluctant to tour India but hesitant since they were not properly prepared for a tough series.

"Not that we were reluctant to play this series. It's not the ideal kind of preparation for a tour to India. India is a tough place to play cricket in and you need preparation to play India in India, especially," Mathews said after arriving in Mumbai. 

Sri Lanka will will take on India A Thursday in a practice match at the Brabourne Stadium here.

"We had been focusing a lot on our fitness over the last one and half months and suddenly this tour came up, so we had to take it. We'll take this as an opportunity to get our combinations right for the World Cup," he added.

The Indian cricket board had to hurriedly organise a five-match ODI series with Sri Lanka after the West Indies team pulled out mid-way during the series this month. 

Sri Lanka will be missing seasoned bowlers Lasith Malinga and Rangana Herath, but Matthews hoped that the experienced batsmen will flourish. Malinga is recovering from an ankle surgery.

"Those two are the backbone of our bowling line-up and we don't have many experienced guys on this tour. But we know this is a hard place to play cricket. We all will learn from this tour," Matthews added.

"Rangana Herath will certainly be missed. He is one of the most experienced players but it lets us give an opportunity to youngsters like Seekkuge Prasanna, Suraj Randiv and Chathuranga de Silva." 

Matthews said the team will be banking on the experience of ex-captains Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. For both Jayawardene and Sangakkara this is likely their last tour to India. 

Cuttack will host the first of the five One-Day Internationals (ODI) between India and Sri Lanka Nov 2. The second match will be held at Ahmedabad (Nov 6), to be followed by Hyderabad (Nov 9), Kolkata (Nov 13) and Ranchi (Nov 16). All matches will be day-and-night games.

The series is a replacement of the West Indies tour of India where the visiting side withdrew from the tour last week due to an ongoing pay dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA).

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) agreed to step in and in return, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) agreed to tour Sri Lanka in July-August 2015. Sri Lanka were originally scheduled to tour India for Tests next year.