Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors Ashantha de Melhas said the Sri Lanka batsmen should to be wary of the two Pakistan spinners, Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman, during the upcoming Twenty20, ODI and Test series.
"It is the Pakistani spinners we need to be careful of. Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman are of a different class compared to our spinners. Only Rangana Herath comes anywhere close to them," De Mel said.
Offspinner Ajmal and left-arm spinner Rehman have been at the forefront of Pakistan's recent successes. The pair took 43 wickets in Pakistan's 3-0 win over No. 1 ranked England in their last Test series played in the UAE early this year. Ajmal was also the leading wicket-taker with 18 wickets during Sri Lanka's three-Test series against Pakistan in the UAE last year.
"The advantage the Pakistan team has is that it also has batsmen who can be useful bowlers, for instance opener Mohammad Hafeez, who can bowl offbreaks," he said. "This adds a lot of variety to their attack and balances their team nicely.
"Their fast bowlers are quite effective with the reverse swing. That's another area our batsmen have got to be wary of. Pakistan have mastered the art of reverse swing from the era of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Umar Gul and left-arm fast bowler Junaid Khan are very good at using the old ball."
A former fast bowler himself, De Mel said Sri Lanka's fast bowlers need to develop their skills to master reverse swing, an art that needs a lot of practice to be perfected.
Recollecting Sri Lanka's last Test series against England at home which ended in a 1-1 draw, De Mel said the batsmen needed to put up 400-plus totals in the first innings if Sri Lanka are to have any chance of winning. Sri Lanka's highest total in that series was 318 in the Galle Test and they failed to go past the 300-run mark in the Colombo Test.
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