Lanka ready to bounce back: Marvan

‘‘We know the opposition will be tough. I should know — I made my debut against India and it is hard to play in their conditions. You need to be mentally tough.’’

Sri Lanka return to India after their recent heavy 6-1 thrashing in the limited overs series. This forced the selectors as well as team management to ring in the changes to effect a more professional performance.

‘‘I am looking forward to the Tests for quite a few reasons’’, Atapattu said. ‘‘First, I want to put things right after the disappointing previous tour. Second, we have not played a Test in India for eight years, neither have we won a Test there.’’

The heavy defeat during the limited overs series, he said, had hit the team’s confidence. ‘‘We all need to take responsibility for the losses on that last tour and learn from the mistakes’’, he said. ‘‘It’s time we did justice to our talents. Tests are so different and we know that.’’

‘‘They also give you a chance to come back at a time when the gameplan has seemingly slipped away from you’’, he added. ‘‘We are well aware of this. It made us all realise the task ahead of us and that is so important.’’

Atapattu, appointed full-time captain only in April last year, will be heading into his fifth Test series since taking over. So far, Sri Lanka have lost away to Australia, but managed success at home against South Africa, the West Indies and Bangladesh while also beating the strife-torn Zimbabwe on a chaotic tour of the landlocked African country.

‘‘We have held some healthy discussions and exchanged idea of what went wrong’’, he commented. ‘‘We have also held talks with former players and this has helped our focus. We have learnt a lot about our shortcomings from the last tour and plan to take on more responsibility this time.’’

He hoped that players such as uncapped left-arm spinner Sajeeva Weerakoon, leg-spinner Malinga Bandara and fast-bowler Lasith Malinga will add bowling depth to the side. Weerakoon has had several highly productive seasons and collected more than 50 wickets for Sri Lanka A this year.

Bandara played a Test against New Zealand in 1997 and his recall is due to a highly productive first season with Gloucestershire, where he improved his all-round talents and named the county’s player of the year.

‘‘What better place is there than India to bring on spinners’’, Atapattu said. ‘‘It is important for us to develop them and only time will show just how good they are.’