Opening conumdrum vexes Mathews

Sri Lanka will aim to lock down their best ODI combination as World Cup preparation begin in earnest, during the seven-match series against England, captain Angelo Mathews said. Sri Lanka had experimented with their XI in the five-match series against India, resting key players and handing out two ODI debuts, but Mathews said he now sought to build momentum with the players who would comprise the best side at the World Cup.

"We need to get back into our groove and we will also try and taper the experiments down," he said. "We talked about it, and we just want to look at the players whom we think need to be looked at and whom we think will go on the World Cup. We will try and concentrate on those players.

"It's very important that we sort out our bowlers and also the batting order. We might do a little bit of changes here and there in the batting and bowling and towards the end of the series we should have a very clear idea of whom we want to take to the World Cup."

One area of concern for Sri Lanka is the opening slot. Sri Lanka tried three different partners for Tillakaratne Dilshan during the India series, but failed to find a pair that took the first-wicket partnership beyond 50 runs.

"When it comes to chasing or setting up a score the opening partnership is very crucial," Mathews said. "Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene got exposed too early, and that's the way it has been for us in the past year or two. We need to get that right quickly as possible because we are running into a World Cup and we can't be experimenting with the top order.

"We tried with Kusal Perera, Upul Tharanga, Dimuth Karunaratne and Mahela in the past. We will try and sort it out towards the end of the series. It's very important to keep your options open. It there is a problem in the top order and someone needs to be promoted we should experiment.

Sri Lanka have also roped in the services of two former English country cricketers to bolster their preparations for both the New Zealand tour, and the World Cup. Zimbabwean-born Trevor Penney, a Warwickshire stalwart for 17 years, is back with the Sri Lanka team as fielding coach. Penney was fielding coach of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2007. Head coach Marvan Atapattu suggested Penney's had been a timely appointment.

"We are going to pay more attention to our fielding - that's one aspect we have to improve. We are putting a lot of effort in making this group a better fielding side. Trevor has been here before and knows the system and the boys. It's going to help."

Jeremy Snape, a former England ODI and T20 cricketer who played for Gloucestershire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire has also been hired as psychologist for the Sri Lanka team. He is expected to join the team at the start of the ODI series against England on November 26 and spend 17 days with the squad.

"Jeremy is a performance enhancing psychologist and his role is to get the players performing at optimum levels and getting them thinking in areas they really haven't thought about," Atapattu said. "We had Sandy Gordon in that role during Tom Moody's time, when I was a player, and I thought it was good. That was the reason behind suggesting Jeremy."

"Considering the amount of cricket that is being played these days players need to be refreshed not just physically but mentally too. It's about getting the stress out of the system and to refresh the mind and prepare for the next game.

"Jeremy's services have been proven over the years with Rajasthan Royals, when they won the IPL under Shane Warne, with Melbourne Stars where Lasith Malinga played in the Big Bash, and South African cricket under Graeme Smith. Motivating is one part of his job coming from a cricketing back ground and he could be a handful to the squad."