Sri Lanka bid to sweep New Zealand and reach WTC final

Sri Lanka will look to strike an early blow against New Zealand in Christchurch this week and hope Australia can thwart India to keep the World Test Championship (WTC) race alive.

With Australia already confirmed in the WTC final, Sri Lanka can join them by sweeping New Zealand in their two-test series if India are denied victory in the fourth test in the subcontinent.

The series starts at Hagley Oval on Thursday, the same day India and Australia start their final test at the mega-stadium in Ahmedabad.

Sri Lanka has by far the harder assignment, needing to create history to leapfrog their south Asian rivals.

They have never won more than a single test in New Zealand and their last victory was in 2006, when Mahela Jayawardene's team split a 1-1 series with the Stephen Fleming-captained hosts.

"Beating New Zealand in New Zealand is certainly going to be a huge task but last time we played some good cricket over here," veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews told reporters on Tuesday, referring to their 1-0 defeat on the 2019 tour.

"We have to play fire with fire because they’re going to come hard at us."

Sri Lanka have left no stone unturned in their preparations and recently held a training camp at a new facility in the hills south of Kandy to try to simulate New Zealand's cool conditions and bouncy wickets.

A team more accustomed to attacking with spin, Sri Lanka have brought a full stable of pace bowlers to New Zealand.

They will have to learn on the job as none of the quicks has ever played a test in New Zealand, while Milan Priyanath and seam-bowling all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne boast one test between them.

New Zealand, meanwhile, are in good spirits after pulling off a famous one-run win over England in Wellington last week.

Tha