Sri Lanka vs Australia: 5 key player battles to watch out for

#4 Nuwan Pradeep vs David Warner

Pradeep against Warner

Nuwan Pradeep was one of the positives to emerge from the otherwise disappointing England tour as he picked up 10 wickets with an average of 31. He regularly troubled the English batting with his sharp pace and disconcerting bounce. With several of the regular seamers out injured, Pradeep will now be the leader of the attack and his form at the top of the order might dictate the outcome of the match.

However, he will be up against David Warner, who is returning from a finger injury and is raring to go. Warner can take apart any bowling attack on his day, and if he gets going, it will spell doom for the hosts. The southpaw has not scored an away Test century since the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai in October 2014, and he will be keen to set this record straight in this series.