The fact that Test cricket is being played at Galle again will be a boost to the tsunami-affected people in these parts © Getty Images

Looking back at the series so far, at Kandy we had a tough first innings followed by a great fightback, whereas at the SSC we did a holding job to keep England down to 351 and then followed that up with a wonderful first-innings batting display. Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Vandort dominated. In fact, most of our batsmen got on top of the England bowling and it stayed that way for most of the match.

England's performance so far has been quite good. Michael Vaughan in the second Test and Ian Bell right through the series have been quite outstanding. Matt Prior, too, has scored two important half-centuries for England. They have come into tough conditions and are doing quite all right. It's just that their bowling has lacked penetration to have us in trouble.

They have never really looked like getting 20 wickets in a Test, and have ended up fighting for a draw in both matches so far. We felt that was the case in 2004 as well, and also when South Africa came here last year. The way England are playing suits us quite well, because it allows us to dictate what happens. We are not complaining, we are going to keep up the pressure and see whether they crack.

As far as their batting goes, with Muttiah Muralitharan they have managed, at times, to prolong the inevitable. Anyway on the SSC wicket, against any spinner, a lot of batsmen were not going to have any trouble. It was pretty slow and there was no bite or bounce off the track for a spinner. It was like that right through the game, whereas the Kandy wicket had a bit more in it, especially when Murali bowled with the new ball. England have played Murali well, but not well enough to deny him wickets.

At the SSC, England were perhaps too cautious. When you spend a day and a half to score 350, it takes the result out of the game. That's up to them. We have got to concentrate and make sure we go ahead as planned. Our target is to win the next Test.

The wickets seem to be getting better for batting, by and large. There may be commercial factors involved here, with Tests expected to last five days for the advertisers' sake. The wickets that people have traditionally seen in the subcontinent offer a lot to spinners and not much to the fast bowlers; but we haven't seen that during this Test series.

Our batsmen have gone on to score big hundreds, while the England batsmen have failed to convert their starts and fifties. Why they are falling short could be down to a variety of reasons, but our guys are buckling down to make big scores. They have shown the application and the character to get on with the job once they get started. In the end, more often than not, the side with batsmen scoring big runs will dominate the series.

In Prasanna Jayawardene we have a fantastic wicketkeeper who is just coming into his own with the bat, too, which is exactly what every side wants. Prasanna has waited for this opportunity for quite a long time and he seems to relish this role. He is young enough to keep improving and he is going about it the right way. He has got a fantastic work ethic and great keeping skills. He must have been under pressure considering there was another keeper in the side. I am not sure how he looked at the situation, but I think it has been made clear to him that he has got the gloves for a while as long as he keeps delivering, and he has done magnificently well.

Going to Galle, the series is all up for grabs. England will come back hard because they have to win the match to draw the series, and we expect that. We are going to go at them equally hard. Let's see who gives first.

It is going to be a special Test for a lot of reasons. We need to remember what happened during the tsunami to the Galle stadium and to the people in this area and all of Sri Lanka. This game will mark the beginning of a new era, a post-tsunami era. It will show that we are getting on with what Sri Lankans do best: live life to the full and enjoy cricket. That's the way we should look at it: have all those people in our hearts and minds and also move on and start a new chapter in Sri Lankan sport and the history of Galle. The cricket is back, the ground is up and running, the city is up and running, and all the people affected have plenty to look forward to. The very fact the cricket is being played - to the Sri Lankan psyche it seems that normalcy has returned.

There is rain around, but we will have to wait and see. Historically, Galle is a ground where the covering of the ground, and getting water off the covers, and getting the ground ready has been done efficiently and remarkably well over the years. In Jayananda Warnaweera we have a curator who works through the night at times when rain is a concern, to make sure the ground is ready. Hopefully, he will have mustered his troops this time too and got everything in order to make sure the match starts as scheduled.

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