Sri Lanka 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.

With Australia already confirmed in the WTC final, Sri Lanka can join them by sweeping New Zealand in their two-Test series if India are denied victory in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad.

The series begins at Hagley Oval on Thursday, the same day India and Australia start their final Test.

Sri Lanka has by far the harder assignment, needing to create history to leapfrog their south Asian rivals.

They have never won more than a single Test in New Zealand and their last victory was in 2006, when Mahela Jayawardene’s team split a 1-1 series with the Stephen Fleming-captained hosts.

“Beating New Zealand in New Zealand is certainly going to be a huge task but last time we played some good cricket over here,” veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews told reporters on Tuesday, referring to their 1-0 defeat on the 2019 tour.

“We have to play fire with fire because they’re going to come hard at us.” Sri Lanka have left no stone unturned in their preparations and recently held a training camp at a new facility in the hills south of Kandy to try to simulate the conditions.

A team more accustomed to attacking with spin, Sri Lanka have brought a full stable of pace bowlers to New Zealand.

They will have to learn on the job as none of the quicks has ever played a Test in New Zealand.

New Zealand are in good spirits after pulling off a famous one-run win over England in Wellington. That left the series a 1-1 draw and preserved the Black Caps’ unbeaten record at home dating back to 2017.

Match begins

■ New Zealand vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test Day I, 3.30am IST, Thursday, live on Amazon Prime Video