Sri Lanka bat; Kumara, Gunaratne debut

Herath versus the class of '99

Sri Lanka's stand-in captain Rangana Herath won his first toss and chose to bat against Zimbabwe in Harare, in the first Test between the teams since 2004. Sri Lanka handed debuts to 19-year-old fast bowler Lahiru Kumara and allrounder Asela Gunaratne, who had played his first international match against India in a T20 in February.

Fast bowler Carl Mumba was also given his cap, becoming Zimbabwe's 100th Test player in their 100th match. Zimbabwe's players have recently had to overcome problems with the board over non-payment of fees. However, there has been new hope for the side after the appointment of former captain Heath Streak as coach. Zimbabwe last played a Test against New Zealand in August.

"We would have batted also," Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer said at the toss. "It looks a good wicket, may not change much. The cracks may just widen up. Streak has been excellent, and has brought a lot of good ideas to the table."

Sri Lanka were without a number of injured players including Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhammika Prasad and came into the series having swept the home series against Australia 3-0 in August.

Zimbabwe 1 Tino Mawoyo, 2 Brian Chari, 3 Hamilton Masakadza, 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Sean Williams, 6 Peter Moor (wk), 7 Malcolm Waller, 8 Graeme Cremer (capt), 9 Donald Tiripano, 10 Carl Mumba, 11 Chris Mpofu

Sri Lanka 1 Kaushal Silva, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Kusal Perera (wk), 5 Upul Tharanga, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Asela Gunaratne, 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Rangana Herath (capt), 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Lahiru Kumara