Dhananjaya de Silva wants his teammates to get the opportunity of playing county cricket for their overall development as players and understanding of the game.
The Sri Lanka red-ball captain opened about the dearth of opportunities in the county circuit for his players and mentioned that a few seasons of county cricket "will be nice" for his batters, in particular.
"Playing in these conditions will be better for the batsmen," Dhananjaya de Silva was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo ahead of the Lord's Test on Thursday. "We are only getting the chance while we're touring here. But if the batsmen can play county (cricket), it'll be nice for them."
Dhananjaya's teammate Dinesh Chandimal had also revealed during the first Test at Old Trafford that one of his unfulfilled dreams is to play a season of county cricket.
"The last few years, I wanted to get a county deal," Chandimal had said during the Manchester Test. "I didn't get it so far. If I can do well in this series, hopefully I will be picked by one of the counties. It is my dream to play a season of county cricket."
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka captain has confirmed that the tourists are making two changes to their playing XI for the Lord's Test. They have brought Pathum Nissanka and Lahiru Kumara into the side at the expense of Kusal Mendis and Vishwa Fernando.
"Overall, Pathum is the best batter in the country at the moment," Dhananjaya said. "He has a good mindset and he has a good technique."
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Pathum Nissanka, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Rathnayake, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara
England (Playing XI): Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir
