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The first Test is greatly poised at the end of today’s play with a win guaranteed one way or another. I have watched much of it on TV and have been ruing not being able to be a part of what has been a truly absorbing contest. England are the number one ranked Test team in the world, though they have had their struggles in the sub-continent and are looking to prove a point. They have a fine attack with quality fast bowlers and spinners and they would have been delighted with their start to this Test when they snapped up three wickets inside the first four overs of the game.

Mahela (Jayawardena) however proved to be their one stumbling block and his innings of 180 in a total of 318 stands out like a colossus, especially in the context of where the match stands today. It was a truly brilliant knock from Mahela who was at his very skillful best and it was a real pleasure to watch. He can make batting look so easy at times and there was no greater example of this where the next highest scorer was just 27.

I think the team would have been happy with their first innings total, especially given their start, and it certainly set the tone for a great contest as totals of this kind tend to produce results. Rangana Herath has been steadily developing as our primary weapon and he proved how far he’s come along in undertaking that responsibility for the team. His six-wicket haul was a tremendous effort and he was really able to put the English batsmen under a lot of pressure. His contribution with the ball was the ideal foil to Mahela with the bat which put us in a very strong position at the half-way mark of the match.

England however showed that teams do not become number one ranked for nothing, and they did a tremendous job to bridge this advantage with a great bowling performance in our second innings. Once again we lost early wickets but this time around we were unable to engineer the type of recovery that we managed through Mahela in the first innings. However, the unbeaten innings from Prasanna Jayawardene, and especially his partnerships with the last couple of batsmen could yet prove to be crucial as it means that England has to create history to chase down a total of 340. PJ batted superbly given the situation and his contribution was perhaps worth double.

England has certainly made a good start having erased 111 runs from the target for the loss of just two wickets. But they will have to bat really well to get the remaining 229 runs – and if they are good enough to do so, then hats off to them. However, you only need a couple of wickets for the wheels to come off in situations like this and it is important that we remain patient in order to get wickets. Not only Herath, but I feel Suraj Randiv is also coming in to contention with the bounce he is able to extract, and the combination of both spinners on a fourth day wicket will call for some highly skilled batting.

Going in to what should be the final day, barring weather interruptions; my money is on a Sri Lanka win. From a cricketing point of view, a close game will make for riveting viewing but I’d rather see Herath and Randiv make early inroads. No matter what, it has been an exciting Test and a demonstration of what Test cricket is about. While I was dejected to have missed out on playing, I’m confident that I will be fit for the second Test starting on the 3rd of April.

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We are all looking forward to our first match in the series against India tomorrow at the WACA. We’ve been in Australia for over a week now with the last three days being in Perth, where we’ve enjoyed an excellent preparation. Personally, I feel that our long stint in South Africa will hold us in good stead for the Australian tour as we face similar playing conditions, and in the Australian team, a similar opponent in outlook and character to that of the South Africans. Also, we ended the South African tour on a real high after chasing two 300-odd scores to win both matches, which is always good for one’s confidence.

Tomorrow’s game against India is the first time that our two teams meet since the World Cup final last year. Ironically, both finalists have had a tough time since, though I believe that despite the consecutive losses we suffered, we did play some good cricket against what were very tough and skillful opponents. One only has to look at how India coped with the conditions in England, and how England themselves have fared against the talented Pakistanis, to appreciate the fact that we were certainly up against quality opponents in conditions that they revelled in.

India has certainly had the worst of it, though, having lost every single Test in both England and Australia, as well as the ODIs in England, and I’m sure they will be happy to be playing a different opponent to the Aussies when we meet tomorrow – especially at the WACA. This is something that we have to be mindful of as India is most likely targeting tomorrows match as their opportunity to regain their confidence and bring back that authority to their game that they are renowned for.

For us on the other hand, it is an opportunity to secure not only a great start to the series for ourselves, but an opportunity to keep the Indian’s under pressure in the battle for securing a place in the finals. They have quality players though with plenty of experience so we are going to have to play exceptionally well to win.

This will be my first ODI match at the WACA, although I have fond memories of our T20 game here against Australia in 2010, which we won comfortably. As usual, we have also enjoyed great support from the expat Sri Lankan community, and it’s always nice to have greater support than what you would normally come to expect when playing overseas. Perth obviously does not have the large numbers that Melbourne does, but then again, the WACA is a much smaller venue so the support ratio could well be about the same.

A much anticipated double header for us at the WACA where we also play Australia on Friday. Our focus of course is on tomorrow’s game and I hope it’s one that will be enjoyable to everyone watching live or on TV.

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Winning the second Test was an amazing experience. It was a win that was full of character and courage with no one understandably giving us much of a chance on the basis of our struggles in all the Test series’ after the World Cup – and especially after that big loss in the first Test at Centurion. Following my personal disappointment of missing out on the Tests in England, which would have been my first Test experience outside of the sub-continent, I was especially excited about playing in South Africa despite the formidable record they have had over us in previous encounters.

The first Test rout in three days at Centurion underscored this dominance, which makes our turnaround in Durban all the more creditable and significant. Tilan led the way and steered us from what at one stage looked like a repeat of our string of poor first innings totals. In the context of our recent history, as well as the degree of difficulty of recovering from a poor first innings total, Tilan’s contribution was therefore game-changing, which the bowlers then capitalised on with telling effect.

Playing in his first Test, Dinesh Chandimal was brilliant. His contributions in both innings proved to be crucial. The manner in which he batted was also very encouraging from a team-future point of view. Importantly, once we got ourselves in to a position of strength, we had someone always stepping up to maintain our advantage and in the second innings, Sanga hammered home the old adage: catches win matches. It was yet another master-class batting performance from Sanga who in 2011, played some of his finest knocks in the face of great pressure and highly skilled bowling.

With runs on the board, our bowlers responded beautifully and Chanaka Welegedara’s first innings performance was a very special one which set the South African’s back a great deal. Having knocked off the top-order, Rangana then took over and his nine wickets in the match sealed the South African’s fate and handed us one of our most historic Test wins. It was a great team effort and one in which a great deal of joy was shared.

We play the final Test tomorrow in Cape Town and we are not getting carried away with our performance at Durban. The South African’s have come under a lot of pressure following this defeat and due to the fact that they have not won a home-series recently. We would ideally like to maintain this pressure though undoubtedly, they will be determined to come back bigger and stronger. The first innings of the game will have a big bearing on how the match unravels. Additionally, recent history at Cape Town has seen scores of below 100 and larger scores occurring in the same match – this is an indication that specific and intermittent periods can be very hard-going for the batsmen, which we will need to guard against.

Personally, I’m not happy that I’ve not been able to convert two starts that I’ve had into bigger scores and will be looking to rectify this. I also played a poor shot in the second innings of the last Test and will focus on better shot-selection. I have also fully recovered from the little niggle that I experienced in the first Test and I’m hoping to do a bit of bowling in this Test.

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Despite saving the first Test in remarkable fashion, mainly due to the great knocks by Kumar Sangakkara and Prasanna Jayawardene, we had no illusions about the challenges we faced going in to the second Test. The obvious area for great improvement was in the batting department and we knew we had to play very well against this world-class attack. We also needed to give our relatively inexperienced bowling attack a decent total with which to work with.

Unfortunately, we were unable to translate this on the field of play, and losing five wickets by lunch on the first morning meant we were in a lot of trouble early in the contest. Later, Chanaka Welegedara and Rangana Herath did really well to get us past the 200 mark and add some sort of respectability to the total, but it was still way short of what we required.

Given the solid start that Pakistan gave themselves and having grabbed a near-fifty run lead with just three wickets down, I think we did well to eventually restrict them to a lead of 164. It was a good comeback by our bowlers and, in fact, their lead would have been much less if not for the very useful seventh wicket partnership between Asad Shafiq and Adnan Kamal.

There was no question that we needed to bat really well in our second innings as the wicket was starting to take spin and we were very hopeful after Tharanga Paranavitana, Lahiru Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara batted out the final 28 overs on day three for the loss of Thirimanne’s wicket only.

The next morning of course was going to be very critical and we were hoping for another big innings from Sanga, but he was unfortunately ruled out LBW in the fourth over of the morning. Not long after we were four wickets down and still trailing by nearly 50 runs and looking down the barrel so to speak.

Paranavitana and I managed to slowly but surely reduce the deficit to 24 when he edged Saeed Ajmal to slip and his marathon rear-guard innings unfortunately came to an end. Paranavitana had batted for nearly six hours which was a fantastic effort and one which surely deserved a century. It was certainly one of those occasions where a fifty was worth a hundred in terms of skill and concentration and I’m sure he would rate it alongside any of his centuries.

Unfortunately, his dismissal also came at the very moment that the new ball was due and despite a brave 33 from Dhamikka Prasad, our eventual lead of 93 was never going to be enough.

Going in to tomorrow’s Test, ideally, we need to reverse the trend and not lose early wickets when batting, and take early wickets when bowling. This is stating the obvious but this has been our problem and it is a problem that we must address starting tomorrow.

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Following the three Test matches against Australia, I’m looking forward to the opportunity of going straight into another Test series starting tomorrow against Pakistan. Despite the disappointment of losing the series against the Aussies, I think it was a great learning experience, especially for those that have come into side in recent times. Test cricket is about combining mental toughness with skill and there was much to learn on both counts from this series.

I certainly enjoy playing all forms of the game and each form has their own attraction and appeal. At the end of the day, however, it is Test cricket that primarily defines the quality and capability of any cricketer. A top-class Test cricketer will compete favourably in any form of the game while a successful cricketer in the shorter forms of the game will not necessarily succeed at Test level.

Having been satisfied with my own performance in the series against the Aussies, I am keen to consolidate myself as a Test cricketer and playing Pakistan at a neutral venue is a challenge that I’m very keen to face.

I actually made my Test debut against Pakistan in the home series in 2009, which was a memorable series as we won the first two matches, with time preventing us from possibly recording an improbable win in the third. In this final match at the SSC, we were set a target of 492 and reached 4 for 391 with an unbroken stand of 100-odd between Kumar Sangakkara and myself before we ran out of time. Batting with Kumar who remained 130 not out while I managed my first half century gave me a great deal of confidence early in my career.

Playing at a venue that we have had no experience on and one which there is little to go by way of history adds another dimension to the challenge that we face tomorrow. It is therefore vital that we adapt very early be it with bat or ball and put the Pakistanis under pressure from the very start.

There are many new faces that we will face in this Pakistan side from when we last played them in 2009 but that does not count for anything as we all know how brilliant they can be on their day. We therefore need to look to performing with greater consistency in all departments and effectively manage the spells of Pakistani brilliance when they do occur.

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I’m back in Colombo having flown out to Melbourne immediately after the third Test against Australia for on-going treatment to my quad. The squad is now also back in training for the up-coming series against Pakistan in the UAE after a short break following the Aussie series.

The series against Australia, both in the ODIs and Tests proved to be a great disappointment to all of us as we felt that we just did not play the cricket that we are capable of, especially given our familiarity of home conditions. Not for a moment did we imagine that the Aussies would be a push-over given their relative lack of bowling experience, especially in sub-continental conditions. But, while they indeed bowled really well and were as tough and as hard-nosed as you come to expect from any Australian team, we did not do ourselves any favours either.

At the end of the day in the Test series, and in retrospect, while the Australians were deserved winners, one batting debacle in the first innings of the first match cost us the series. Sure, we were out-played for much of the second Test as well, but managed to manufacture a draw with a more determined effort in our second innings and a little bit of help from the rains. In reality, therefore, the third Test was the only match in which we had the upper hand. It was unfortunately not sufficient to enforce a victory, which was always going to be a tough ask given the friendlier batting conditions of the SSC.

I was obviously delighted to score my first Test century in this match even though the pace in which I achieved it came in for criticism by some. The fact, however, is that the point when I was nearing my century also coincided with a particularly critical time for the team. We needed to get a substantial lead to give ourselves any chance of forcing a win by putting the Aussies under a bit of pressure on the basis of a sizable first innings deficit. This we felt was our only chance to force a win as we needed the pressure of the equation to negate the friendly batting conditions.

The Australians recognised this and, especially after Prasanna Jayawardena and I were starting to push the lead up, adopted defensive tactics which made normal run-scoring very tough to achieve. As a result, our progress was slowed down, but our priority for a decent lead always remained higher than that of ‘time’ given that there was still a whole day and a couple of sessions left in the match by the time we were eventually all out.

As it turned out, we did have a glimpse of a chance or two with the Aussies having lost four wickets for a lead of just 63. Had we been able to grab Michael Clarke or Mike Hussey before they established a stand we’d have put them under much more pressure. As it turned out though Clarke and Hussey, who had an unbelievable series and who was the main difference between the two teams, proceeded to seal the game and the series.

This is now behind us and our focus has turned to the series against Pakistan. Geoff Marsh has been appointed the coach for two years and the players are looking forward to working with him to improve our respective games and to get back to winning ways as a team.

After close on a week in Pallekelle in central Sri Lanka, where the first three matches of the Australian tour were played, we have since moved to Hambantota on the southern coast where we will play the second and third ODIs.

The stadiums in these two regions were of course newly built for the recently concluded World Cup, and are a great addition to the circuit of venues available in Sri Lanka. Both are also in the “Dry Zone” of the island which means that there is less chance of matches being interrupted by rain.

As many an overseas cricket fan has told me, Sri Lanka is really one of the best places in the world to follow a cricket tour as you get the best of so many worlds within the relatively small confines of an island comparable in size to Tasmania.

This makes travelling from one venue to another not only cost effective, but also time-friendly as you do not have to spend half your holiday or tour travelling between locations as is the case in some of the larger countries.

And with the introduction of the Sri Lankan Air-Taxi services, one can now slash the travelling time down to a matter of minutes between regions, which is a great service and boost for travellers to Sri Lanka.

That is how both teams got across from Pallekelle to Hambantota. Travelling by sea-plane was a new experience for us and everyone was nervous as taking off and landing on water does not seem like the natural thing to do, and understandably, is not as smooth as your regular tarmac landing and take-off! However, like batting, once the initial nervousness disappeared, you were able to take in the stunning beauty of Sri Lanka.

Getting back to the cricket, while it was great to have comprehensively won the T20 series, we are on the back foot in the five-match ODI series having been equally comprehensively beaten in the opening match.

But that is done and dusted and we are focusing on tomorrow’s game which is a must-win game for us. We have had good training sessions including one under lights at the Stadium and we are all in a positive frame of mind.

One aspect that we will be watching with interest is the strong cross-winds that we encountered at the grounds and it will be interesting to see if this has any bearing in some form or another tomorrow.

Both teams have had their share of successes so far with Captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena and Ajantha Mendis being the standout performers for Sri Lanka, and Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson for Australia.

In Dilshan and Watson, both teams possess an opener with the ability to destroy any attack and if only one was to fire on the night, that could well decide the winning team.

As we also expected, the additions of Captain Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey to the Australian ODI side has added another dimension to their batting department and the onus is on our own batting unit to take greater responsibility for the remainder of the series.

With three days in-between matches, we are well-prepared and looking forward to taking on the Aussies tomorrow.