Tharanga's last Test was also against Pakistan, in Colombo last year, where he made 92 and 45. However, he was dropped for the New Zealand tour later in 2014, losing his place to Dimuth Karunaratne. Tharanga played in the the tour match against the Pakistanis before the current series and scored 35 in the first innings at No. 3, and 50 as an opener in the second.

Sri Lanka's other batting options in the squad are Jehan Mubarak and Kusal Perera. While Mubarak had unimpressive scores of 28 and 16 in the warm-up match, Kusal's last first-class match was against Pakistan A, in Colombo in May, in which he scored 90 and 102 not out. He was also the leading run-scorer in that three-match series with 311 runs from three innings at an average of 155.50, including two hundreds and a fifty.

The Test series is currently tied 1-1.

(Cricinfo)