Ireland spin bowling coach Nathan Hauritz has given a big indication that Matthew Humphreys could make his Test match debut against Sri Lanka in the second game of the series starting early tomorrow morning (Monday 5.30am BST).

The 20-year-old Lisburn slow left armer was left out of both the one-off Test in Bangladesh at the start of the month and the first Test in Galle, which Ireland lost by an innings and 280 runs last week.

But with none of the spinners making a serious impact on Sri Lanka’s formidable batting line-up, Humphreys is set to come into the side for what will be only his fourth match for Ireland.

“He’s bowled a lot of balls over the last three or four weeks and has had an opportunity to play international cricket in ODIs and T20s, said Hauritz, “but our main goal was for him to come over here and if ready play a Test at the end of the series.

“We definitely need the ball spinning away (from the right handers) and George (Dockrell) did an ok job but we need to find a way to make more inroads. It’s quite challenging for an (off) spinner like (Andy) McBrine who doesn’t get as much bounce as (his Sri Lanka counterpart Ramesh) Mendis so we need to find a way to create opportunities and Humph is definitely someone we are looking at leading into the next Test.

And the Australian, who played against Ireland in an ODI in Clontarf back in 2010 – taking the wickets of William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien – is backing the spinners to cause more problems this time, on one condition!

“If we get the opportunity to bat first and put a good score on the board I back our spinners to create a lot of problems and it will be interesting to see how their batters play against us,” added Hauritz. “But bowling first in these conditions is the hardest thing you can do as a spinner and the wicket was incredibly flat.”

There is certain to be at least one change from the first Test with Paul Stirling having arrived in Galle after a pre-planned three-week break, but Graham Hume could also come in for Mark Adair who pulled up during the first Test and did not bowl in the nets yesterday.