Leach shines for undercooked England
Burns and Jennings set to open in first Test Squad get just three days in warm-up before Galle
It is ridiculous really. England’s cricketers drive down Sri Lanka’s west coast to Galle today, for a three-test series starting on Tuesday after four days of match practice, one of which was washed out.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, or all the team’s coaches and all the team’s analysts, cannot prepare a young squad nearly as well as if they had been given two first-class warm-up games, which the International Cricket Council – if it was interested in saving Test cricket – would make a minimum requirement for every touring team, otherwise a bilateral series would be denied Test status.
Instead, England had three days of unpressured practice in conditions which bore not the slightest resemblance to what Sri Lanka’s opponents normally face in Galle, save for the stifling heat. The two practice pitches have been very true for batting and the Sri Lanka Board XI bowled seam half the time, whereas in the previous Test at Galle, on a raging turner against South Africa in July, Sri Lanka bowled spin for all bar 4.3 overs.
England’s captain on this tour, Joe Root, has had one innings against a red ball. Rory Burns has booked himself into Alastair Cook’s spot on the basis of two innings of 47 and 19. James Anderson and Stuart Broad know well enough how to prepare themselves, in the limited time made available, but if Chris Woakes is selected, he will go into the opening Test after facing 10 balls on this tour, in one one-day international innings, while Joe Denly has scored 25 and nought, Ollie Pope 19 not out and nought.
Surely if Test tours are worth doing, they are worth doing properly, especially because if England were to win this series – almost inconceivable at this stage, even though Sri Lanka’s match-winning spinner Rangana Herath will retire after Galle – they would rise to second place in the Test rankings.
At least in yesterday’s game, in which England batted then bowled for 50 overs without any bowling or fielding restrictions – it was all so old-fashioned the stumps were plain brown – Jack Leach had sufficient bowling to ink himself into the Test team.
After taking an over to realise the right pace to bowl on Sri Lankan pitches (faster than normal because they are so slow), he bowled his next 12 overs for 22 runs, spun the ball past outside edges and gave his captain control.
The other selection issue to be finalised, to all appearances, was that Keaton Jennings will be the opening partner for Burns, who could have done with more batting against spin but pulled a short ball to square leg. However, it was not so much because Jennings batted excellently as because Denly was dismissed second ball, not even half-forward, and has so far struggled as much against pace as spin.
Jennings took 33 overs to score 45 runs, admittedly on a slow, damp outfield and against a fine pace prospect in Lahiru Kumara, before retiring. What was troubling was that as soon as the fielders blocked his reverse-sweep, Jennings was almost becalmed as he propped forward against the spinners, whereas other left-handers such as Ben Stokes, and especially Sam Curran, used the crease to play back and force the ball into gaps to rotate the strike. In beating South Africa 2-0, Sri Lanka’s batsmen did not go for many big shots against spin, but picked up ones and twos.
Curran, 20, looked his age on his ODI debut here, but batting against the red ball he was again maturity itself in his decision-making. After England had collapsed against Kumara to 28 for three, their masseur had to jog across the road to Nondescripts CC, where some players were practising, to hurry Curran back, but he is already used to England emergencies and calmly scored 48 off 50 balls before the overs ran out.
When given the new ball, Curran switched to round the wicket too soon: angling the ball across righthanders and hanging it outside their off stump was Chaminda Vaas’s method. Denly was carted for three sixes when he dropped short, while Ollie Stone tried bouncers to no great effect.
But what chance do cricketers have to refine their skills in utterly alien conditions in three days of match practice?