Sri Lankan cricket captain Angelo Mathews said on Wednesday that the second test match against India will be an emotional one for the team, as batting great Kumar Sangakkara will bring the curtain down on an illustrious 15-year career.
Sangakkara will play his swansong match from August 20 at the P Sara Oval, the second match of the three-test series, before hanging up his bat after 134 Tests.
The 37-year-old left-hander wanted to quit all formats after World Cup earlier this year, but promised to be available for the back-to-back home series against Pakistan and India.
Mathews said the team can't thank Sangakkara enough for what he has done for the cricket team.
"It's going to be an emotional game for all us. You know a great servant of Sri Lanka cricket, a great servant for the team, a great human being, going to say goodbye to the team. It's going to be very emotional but we cannot thank him enough for what he has done for Sri Lanka cricket and the team over the past so many years," said Mathews at a news conference.
Sangakkara made his international debut in 2000. He is the fifth highest test scorer of all time and is one short of Australian great Donald Bradman's record of 12 double centuries in tests.
Referring to the first test, Mathews gave credit to the players for performing exceptionally well on the last day of the match to give the side a 63-run win against the visitors.
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He said the second test would pose difficulties as India will seek to come back strongly against the hosts.
"We have got two more games to go, we have to play very good cricket to beat India, no matter where we play, home or away. It's a tremendous challenge for us to beat India. So we all know that tough task, a challenge, they are going to give their best shot as well so we have to play very good cricket to win against them," said Mathew.
Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli said the team is ready to bounce back and for him winning as a team is more important than individual performance.
"I would rather have the team perform well and win the games rather than get frustrated that as a batsman I am getting runs but not getting the results. So, the main thing is you work towards the result that the team wants and in that process if you get runs it's obviously good feeling but I would like it to be in a winning course," said Kohli.
Sri Lanka will begin a new era without the southpaw when they head to Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), also in Colombo, for the third and final match against their neighbours.