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26 April 2024

Murali, Vaas to be used against Sri Lanka

Muttiah Muralitharan to help out New Zealand spinners during Sri Lanka tour. (FILE)

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By Staff

New Zealand will use the expertise of Sri Lanka's most successful international bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, during their upcoming tour of the island nation, the stuff.co.nz has reported.

They will assist new New Zealand bowling coach Shane Bond.
 
Vaas is still under contract in Sri Lanka, but has agreed to work with the Black Caps during the eight-match tour that includes one Twenty20 international, five one-dayers and two Tests.
 
Muralitharan is the leading Test wicket-taker of all time with 800 while while left-armer Vaas is easily the second most successful Sri Lankan bowler with 355 wickets.
 
Vaas will work with the entire bowling group, but will also spend time helping the three left-arm seamers in the Black Caps squad - Trent Boult, James Franklin and Neil Wagner, according to the report in dailymirror.lk.
 
Boult and Franklin are involved with both the limited overs squad that left today and the Test squad while Wagner is only involved in the Test squad.
 
With four spin options in each of the side's limited overs and Tests squads, plus wickets expected to take plenty of turn, Muralidharan's expertise will be welcomed with open arms.
 
"Obviously Muralitharan lives in Sri Lanka in Colombo and he's someone we've got contacts with," Hesson said at Christchurch airport on the eve of the team's departure.
 
"We haven't been able to firm things up but we're also looking into the possibility of another specialist coach (in Vaas). We've got some guys lined up but they add to the mix and help Shane in terms of his development - and also the players.
 
"We play half of our cricket in the sub-continent and even now the West Indies' conditions are very sub-continental. We'll get exposed to a lot of spin, and in this series 70-80 per cent of our overs we face will be spin-based. How well we adapt and how well we play them will dictate the outcome."
 
New Zealand open their tour with their one Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday at Pallekele - the same ground where the Black Caps were eliminated from the Twenty20 World Cup earlier this month.