Dav Whatmore : England will be tough but we expect to win

The much-awaited Test series against England has been keenly anticipated by Sri Lanka. There is something special about playing them, especially when they have improved in the way they have, to a point where they defeated Pakistan in Pakistan. Nevertheless, we are expected to win at home and I believe we will.

England are a much more organised side now and they are all playing for a common purpose. In this way, they are similar to Sri Lanka. We aspire to collectively working together and pushing towards a common goal.

They look to be a well-balanced team and have great experience in a number of key areas. Their batting, with Atherton, Hussain, Stewart, Thorpe and Hick, is particularly experienced and they are going to be a very difficult side to bowl out. We are going to have to be very careful.

Two years ago there was a feeling that if you could get on top early then they would crumble. In recent times, however, they have become a tougher unit and fight right to the end. If we do get on top then we will have to work much harder to maintain that advantage.

England though will find it tough, conditions in Sri Lanka will be harder than they were in Pakistan. The pitches here have tended not to last the full distance in the Test Matches and will offer the spinners a great deal of assistance. What is more, they will have to contend with the sapping heat and humidity.

We will be looking to a return to form by our openers, from whom we need a solid platform. Sanath Jayasuriya rarely goes long without a big score in Test cricket and he is well suited to conditions in Sri Lanka. Marvan Attapattu also had a disappointing time in South Africa, but he looked like he had turned the corner in New Zealand.

Every team has got different types of players and they all bring different types of expertise to the team. Attapattu's style is clearly in contrast to that of Jayasuriya, who can win a match in the space of two hours. He plays a similar for us as Atherton does for England and forms the anchor around which we build big totals. He is a natural accumulator of runs and possesses great patience. He is a key player for us in this series.

In the fast bowling department there is healthy competition for places. We will go into the game with just two quick bowlers and it will be a difficult choice as to whom we leave out on the morning of the match. Nuwan Zoysa bowled excellently in New Zealand and Dilhara Fernando offers the welcome variety of real pace, which is useful on any wicket.

There has been a lot of talk about the pitch in Galle going to suit the spinners, but you only have to cast your mind back to last year and the performance of the Pakistani pace bowlers to see that the fast bowlers can prosper there too. England, in Darren Gough and Craig White, have two excellent exponents of reverse swing and this could be an important factor.

The key bowler is of course Muttiah Muralitharan. It was very disappointing to see him pull up with an injury in the last one-day international in New Zealand. With the benefit of hindsight it would have been preferable to have not played him. But, at the time he was really keen to play and we wanted to win five-nil. Thankfully, he looks like he will be fit for Thursday.

Murali has improved since he last played England in 1998 and he has such a deep desire to do well that the England batsmen will find him a real handful. It never a case of 'if' with Murali, but 'when'. He will eventually take your wicket. He also helps the other bowlers take wickets by putting the batsmen under so much pressure.

Different sides have come up with different theories of playing him, but the bottom line is that no technique has yet met with consistent success.

We have five spinners in the squad, all of who are there on merit. The 18-year-old Lokuarachchi and 19-year-old Pushpakumara have tremendous potential, although they have yet to play a great deal of First Class cricket. Kumar Dharmasena has returned to his best form, both with bat and ball, and Dinuk Hettiarachchi deserves to play in his first Test Match.

Everything is now set-up for a fantastic series and we can't wait for the action to begin. Let the best team win.