Sri Lanka-New Zealand Opening Test at Galle to Take a Breather with Rest Day

A day of relaxation has been added to the six-day first Test between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Galle next month due to the island nation’s presidential election.

According to an ICC release on Friday, “because of the Presidential Election of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,” the Test, which was supposed to start on September 18, will have a rest day on September 21.

Due to Poya Day (full moon), Sri Lanka’s 2001 match against Zimbabwe in Colombo included a rest day. This will be the first time in over 20 years that a Test match is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka across six days, according to the ICC.

There will be a second Test at the same location from September 26–30. The two matches are part of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship cycle.

In the last century, Sundays were typically off days for Test cricket matches, which sometimes spanned six days. Therefore, rest days were a common aspect of the sport.

More recently, in December 2008, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka played the first Test match of the series, which lasted six days due to a parliamentary election.

The World Test Championship standings currently have Sri Lanka and New Zealand in third and fourth place, respectively.

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