Sri Lanka win the toss and opt to bat with two debutants in XI

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first in the second Test against South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday 3 January.

The tourists have made two enforced changes to their playing XI with Asitha Fernando and Minod Bhanuka coming in to make their Test debuts.

South Africa unchanged

South Africa have named an unchanged starting XI from the first Test.

Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne will open the batting with regular partner Kusal Perera. 

Wanindu Hasaranga has recovered from the injury that limited his involvement in the first Test.

Sri Lanka head into battle with untested attack

On the eve of the Test Karunaratne was hopeful that his young bowling attack would grab their chance to impress in the ultimate format.

“You can’t play in your comfort zone all the time, and it’s a good opportunity for me and the players who will play to show what they’ve got,” Karunaratne said ahead of the Test. “It’s going to be a challenge for me to work out how to utilise this inexperienced side.

“The players who will likely play – Chameera, Vishwa, Asitha and Shanaka – are all players who have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. They have a fast bowlers’ wicket to bowl on, which has got a lot of bounce and seam. I think they’ll relish this chance, and they’ll have the opportunity to firm up a place in the Test side if they do well.

“We’ve got some good youngsters who have done well in domestic cricket in Sri Lanka,” Karunaratne said. “We’ll need to be competitive every day and every session to win the match. In the last series, we didn’t have the senior players like Chandimal or Angelo. I still believe we can do it.”

South Africa vs Sri Lanka – Teams

South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Rassie van der Dussen 4 Faf du Plessis, 5 Quinton de Kock (capt, wk), 6 Temba Bavuma 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Anrich Nortje 10 Lungi Ngidi 11 Lutho Sipamla

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Minod Bhanuka, 6 Dasun Shanaka, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Vishwa Fernando, 11 Asitha Fernando