But much to the bewilderment of the people present, the spin wizard who continued his mastery over Bangladesh taking nine wickets in the first Test, did not turn with his colleagues during their final practice session ahead of the second and final Test.

And a few inquisitive reporters, guessing wildly whether Muralidaran would play the match or not, were intrigued by a mysterious smile from Sri Lanka manager Michael Tissera.

They were however got the conformation when Moody appeared at a briefing to announce that he has no plan to rest the champion bowler.

"No player is considered for rest. You just can't drop a man who got his 1000th international wickets in the last game," said the witty former Australian all-rounder about his drawcard for success.

Muralidaran is just seven wickets shy of achieving a landmark of 600 Test wickets after Shane Warne.

The visitors will not only field a full-strength side but also issued a warning that they will come hard on the Tigers in the final Test to sweep the series after a 2-1 victory in the one-dayers.

Fresh from a convincing eight-wicket victory in Chittagong, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jaya-wardene said that they have learnt the lesson from a four-wicket defeat in the second one-day match against Bangladesh at the same venue.

"It was a one-day game. If you don't play well on a particular day you lose the game. But Test match is a different ball game. Actually that's long gone and we have realised our mistakes," said Jayawardene.

"You saw we came back strongly in the last one-day in Chittagong and then we had a very good first Test. We want to come really hard on Bangladesh here and want to make sure we put pressure from the very first ball," said a confident Jayawardene.

Muralidaran was the wrecker in chief in the second innings in Chittagong claiming six wickets but the Lankan skipper said that his pace bowlers also impressed him.

"On a flat wicket, they took nearly ten wickets which was not so easy. I am pretty happy with their efforts. You can't expect more from that kind of a track. There was not much bounce in Chittagong but every time given a chance, they got early breakthroughs," he explained.

Like the previous occasions, Sri Lanka decided to wait to see wicket in the morning of the match before naming the line-up.

"We saw a bit of moisture today. It looks different than the Chittagong wicket. During the one-day game, it cracked up considerably," said Moody about the pitch.