I havent really looked in depth as yet but England seem a little in disarray at the moment with Harmy & now Anderson injuring themselves. Bopara looks set to play IMO & at least Hoggy is in form & I notice KP in the runs again.
Thing is I'm not sure all is as it should be in the Lankan camp. Vaas was dropped in Hobart which means hes set to play his 100th test in Kandy on saturday but I spoke to our professional in Galle today whos a great mate on Vaas's & asked if he'd play & the answer was 'a lot of things happening here at moment, Swoopi' !!
Bit difficult to know what that means as I wasnt in the greatest position for a detailed conversation being on a works fax machine
but the first thing that springs to mind is possibly Vaas might have had something to say in the Atapattu 'muppets' occurence....I might know more closer to the time but you'd think that if Kandy is the more seamer friendly surface then Vaas should be a shoo-in surely
The series is an emotional one for the home side with the aforementioned Vaas 100th test & Muralitharan needing only 4 or 5 wickets to break Warnes record & to do it on home soil would be phenomenal. All the hullabaloo involved in this could take Sri Lankas eye off the ball & I certainly wouldnt be too quick to back them at Galle.
The Galle test was originally the 1st before being put back to the 3rd & it will be an extremely emotional occasion as it is the first test back at the ground since the tsunami totally destroyed it & left only the old fort standing. Its been a long road back from there what with the square having to be restarted from scratch so I would guess history is hard to take into account. I know England were always the ideal opponents for the resurrection test & if SL bat first it might be worth a look at the away side with emotions being strong.