COLOMBO (Reuters)
The Sri Lankan cricket team can emerge as a strong Test side if the players show the same kind of intensity they display in the one-day games in five-day matches, team coach Dav Whatmore has said.

The 1996 World Cup winners take on India in a three-Test series starting in Galle on Tuesday hoping to reverse theirpoor run of Test results at home, having lost two of the last three series against Pakistan and England.

"The boys have the capability, no question about that. It is just that often when you have a bad hour in a session, and a couple of bad hours interspersed in the first few days, you really put yourself under pressure," the Sri Lankan-born Australian told Reuters in an interview.

"Often the margins between the sides are pretty small and it was evident in the England series. But whether you lose by one run or one wicket or by 100 runs, it is still a loss," Whatmore said.

Sri Lanka scored their second convincing win in the final of a one-day triangular series last week, but the Tests are expected to be more closely fought.

Whatmore, who was re-appointed coach after a disappointing show by Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup, said the same players who are so focussed in the limited overs game suffer costly lapses in concentration in Tests. "It has cost us the position to really put the pressure on the opposition," he said.

But he felt Sri Lanka were close to forging a strong Test unit. "We know we are close. It is just that we have got to get our job done better over a longer period of time. With more self-belief this can happen and we can do that."

Their overall win-loss record from 111 tests -- since losing their first to England in 1981-82 -- stands at 20-46.

Sri Lanka's last home success was a surprise 1-0 win over Australia in a three-Test series two years ago, a season when they also won in Zimbabwe and beat Pakistan 2-1. But they lost the return contest to Pakistan 2-0 and were beaten 2-1 by England early this year.

"Test cricket is a little less intense, the urgency is not there to get runs, bowlers have the time to work on getting batsmen out, but the pressure is still there," he said.

"We have got quite a few yards to make up, at whichever angle you look at it. We have to work systematically and create a gap between us and the opposition and then have the gap widen."

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