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Sri Lanka ready for England test
Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody believes his young side will cope with England's strong pace bowling attack. The tourists have arrived for three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match and Moody is in confident mood. "Our players enjoy facing pace. It will be no surprise that the ball will be whistling around their ears but the boys enjoy that," the Australian said. "I've found that they are not only wonderful players of spin, but they are also good players of fast bowling."

Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard have played a big role in England's success in the past two years. Their aggression took Australia's batsmen aback last summer and early-season conditions are expected to favour seam bowlers.

Despite the relative inexperience of his squad - only Malinga Bandara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas have played county cricket - Moody is unconcerned by England's firepower. "When we've come across Brett Lee in Australia and Shane Bond in New Zealand they have equipped themselves very well," the former Worcestershire boss explained.

"In Australia everyone said we'd struggle. They put us on some really quick wickets and we equipped ourselves well. We worked very hard to get used to the conditions in Australia and New Zealand and we'll do the same here.

"The players have experienced playing in England in May before and throughout the season. The ball will move around, but it can move around anywhere in the world - it moves around in Colombo too at times during early sessions."

England have had a host of injury problems over the winter, with captain Michael Vaughan, left-arm spinner Ashley Giles and Harmison unlikely to play in the first Test at Lord's on 11 May.

Moody does not think his side's task will be any easier, however, adding: "They're selecting from a bigger pool of players than they were last summer. It's a long time until the first Test and I'm sure the key players will find themselves back on deck at Lord's."

Sri Lanka play their opening match on Monday against a British Universities side at Fenner's and have two more games before the Test series starts.
-BBC

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