Root must star with bat for England to pull off miracle

Tourists have never won in four attempts at Galle Grassless pitch makes three spinners essential

Now is the time for England to reverse their indefensible record of having won only a single Test abroad in almost three years, and that in Bangladesh.

Galle, however, is as hard as any place on earth for Joe Root’s team to start winning Tests abroad. The stadium, on a neck of land connecting the old Portuguese fort to the town that was swamped by the tsunami of 2004, has become one of the most fruitless of all England’s venues – alongside the Gabba in Brisbane, the Waca in Perth and a couple of West Indian grounds where England have been blown aside.

England have lost two of their four Tests in Galle and hung on by the skin of their teeth in the other two. They average 22 runs per wicket – i.e. totals of barely 250 – and score at only 2.3 runs per over, suffering travails against spin. First, there was Muttiah Muralitharan, who retired on this ground after reaching the world record number of 800 Test wickets, and latterly Rangana Herath, who took 12 wickets when England last played here in 2012.

In one-day internationals in the past two years England’s batting against spin has improved enormously from their traditional style of block, block, block, big hit or get out. Eoin Morgan’s men, led by the ODI captain himself and Root, have become superb in hitting spinners to all parts. But fielders do not surround the bat in ODIS as they do in Tests, especially in Galle, where they can stifle batsmen like the heat, and pitches in ODIS are flat and designed for high scoring.

Galle’s stadium is not even a venue for ODIS: it has staged two since the tsunami, both against Zimbabwe. Its purpose in the Sri Lankan scheme is to be the place where unprepared touring teams – a category into which England have artlessly fallen – are trapped and overwhelmed by spin. If, or when, Herath takes one England wicket, it will become the only ground in the world where two bowlers have taken 100 Test wickets: Muralitharan and Herath.

Much has been written, and televised on Al Jazeera, about one of the Galle groundsmen, Tharanga Indika, who has been suspended by Sri Lanka Cricket pending an International Cricket Council investigation into pitch-fixing. But whenever England are in Galle, the ball turns from the start, at least if Sri Lanka are bowling, and the pitch for this opening Test is as grassless as can be – while avoiding a possible suspension by the ICC if the match referee and umpires should consider the amount of turn excessive.

England would be vastly better placed to cope with these extreme conditions of heat, humidity and spin if they had previously played a four-day game against Sri Lanka A on a turning pitch.

They have the whole of December free, for once, and could have come home a week later; but no, Sri Lanka have to tour the southern hemisphere straight after this series.

England have a chance in the second Test, in the hills at Pallekele, where the heat will be less intense, the grass longer and dew may freshen up the pitch for their pace bowlers. For these relatively inexperienced tourists – only James Anderson and Stuart Broad have played a Test in this country before, one each – to win this week, it will take an almost miraculous concatenation.

First, Root will have to win his sixth toss in a row, then play an innings which is long as well as large. He wants to bat No4, a legitimate aspiration; and in the absence of a suitably qualified No3, Jos Buttler could be a wild card in that position, and share the wicketkeeping with Ben Foakes, which would be a sensible tactic if the keeper is standing up to spin most of the day in a brain-boiling helmet.

But a quick Buttler hundred, however brilliant, would be insufficient

England would be vastly better placed to cope with heat, humidity and spin had they previously played Sri Lanka A on a turning pitch

if Sri Lanka regroup and dismiss England for 250 as usual.

Before this Test tour England’s selectors appeared to err in selecting Joe Denly, and all the more so after his two uncertain starts on true pitches in Colombo. Denly was a sensible call-up for the white-ball games when Liam Dawson was injured and indeed should have been in that original squad, but Hampshire No3 James Vince and Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone were far more equipped for this challenge: Vince by averaging 58 against spin in Tests, Livingstone by having hit two centuries in an A “Test” in Sri Lanka last year.

Denly, against pace as well as spin in the warm-ups, illustrated the extent of the gap between the championship second division (in only two seasons has he averaged more than 30 in the first division) and Test cricket, whereas Rory Burns immediately looked to have the game.

Three spinners are essential in Moeen Ali, Jack Leach and Adil Rashid, while only three pace bowlers will be required in Anderson and the all-rounders Ben Stokes and Sam Curran. England coach Trevor Bayliss and Root have said publicly how many options they will have when finalising their team, but it would be better if there was only one – the right one.