Prior to leaving the island for a six week long tour of India, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara urged his team to play positive cricket and leave all excuses back at home. The 16 member Sri Lankan squad left the island yesterday night to play three Test Matches, five One-Day Internationals and two T-20 Internationals against the Indians with the first of the three Tests starting next Monday (16th November).

Sri Lanka have never won a Test Match in India despite regularly visiting the neighbouring country and Sangakkara was excited about the team’s prospects this time.

Sri Lanka are ranked number two in official ICC rankings and the excellent form of their top order batsmen – Tillekeratne Dilshan, Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera has enabled them to be consistent in Test cricket in the last three years, where there have been so many highlights.

"It’s an exciting series, but nevertheless a tough one. We can either go to India and just return home having done what all other teams have done or else we can go there and play with a positive attitude and change the recent trend."

"The attitude should be simple. The first thing we should start with is not making any complaints. Whether the seats in the flights are too small or the food or the other facilities, we should leave all those complaints at home and focus on just the task ahead of us," Sangakkara who will lead Sri Lanka in a Test Match for the first time away from home said.

Sri Lanka will play a warm up game in Mumbai before moving to Ahmedabad for the first Test and then will travel to Kanpur for the second Test before moving back to Mumbai for the final Test.

"We have never won a Test match in India. So that’s a great challenge for our guys. I’m really looking forward to it. In the last two-three ODI series we played here, we have had pretty ordinary results and we are keen to come back with an improved result," Sangakkara added.

Sri Lanka won the last Test series between the countries 2-1, in August last year at home, when Ajantha Mendis, making his debut, mesmerized the strong Indian batting line up comprising Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.S.S. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly.

All the batsmen mentioned above are still a part of the Indian line up barring Ganguly, who retired last year and to make amends they have Gautam Gambhir, the opener, who was named as the ICC Test Batsman of the Year at the annual awards ceremony in October this year.

When Sri Lanka toured India last in 2005, they were beaten 2-0.

Middle order batsman Thilina Kandamby and wicket-keeper bat Kaushal Silva are the only uncapped players in the touring party while left-arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara returns to the side after a lay off of two years due to injury.

The selectors have only named a single specialist opening batsman in the squad in Tharanga Paranavithana suggesting that Tillekeratne Dilshan will open batting.

The Lankans also have a new Assistant Coach in former Australian middle order batsman Stuart Law. The tourists have also stressed on improving their fielding after a disappointing show in the recent Champions Trophy tournament.

There’ll also be a lot of focus on off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who could possibly be on his last Test tour. The off-spinner, who has indicated that he will retire from Test cricket in next November requires 22 more wickets to become the first man to claim 800 wickets in Test cricket.