Speaking after the day’s play on Thursday, the 35-year-old said in a press conference, “Unfortunate that we are not playing too many Test matches this year – it’s as few as five.”

Sri Lanka last played a two-match Test series against Pakistan in July 2022 at home. “We are coming off a long layoff – the last Test was six months back,” Mathews said.

“Everyone’s talking about Test cricket dying, but we’re not doing any good for Test cricket playing only five Tests a year. Hopefully, we’ll get more matches this year. Five feels like not enough,” he added.

Sri Lanka is in contention to qualify for the World Test Championship final if they blank New Zealand 2-0 in this Test series. The visitors will look to strike an early blow against New Zealand in Christchurch this week and hope Australia can thwart India to keep the World Test Championship (WTC) race alive.

At stumps on Day-2 New Zealand was 162-5, still 193 behind with two all-rounders at the crease. Daryl Mitchell was 40 and had batted for more than two hours and Michael Bracewell was 9.

The Sri Lanka bowlers capitalized on a good effort by their batters to put the tourists in a strong position at the end of the second day. The bowlers were able to do far more with the ball Friday than the New Zealanders were able to do even on the first day and after winning the toss.