Is still England’s CRICKET magic number

Bayliss wants Root to come in at first drop but without an obvious candidate for the spot it’s a selection headache

NO sooner have England raised a glass to toast their best away win since Johannesburg in January 2016, than they must work out how to squeeze a quart into a pint pot in Pallekele.

Victory in this week’s second Test would give them their first series win in Sri Lanka since Nasser Hussain’s team came from behind in 2000-01. The side they beat back then may have contained rather more all-time greats than the current Sri Lankan team but Joe Root will simply be grateful to have ended the longest sequence without an away win in England’s Test history.

Against the idyllic backdrop of the Indian Ocean lapping the shore by the team hotel, coach Trevor Bayliss felt sufficiently relaxed to proclaim the triumph here as ‘the beginnings of Joe Root’s team’. What that team will look like come Wednesday, not even Bayliss seemed sure.

It has not been lost on him, Root or national selector Ed Smith, who is in Sri Lanka but lacks a formal say on the final XI, that England won the first Test with a team that was markedly less experienced than the one which won their previous game, against India at the Oval in September.

With Alastair Cook retired, Stuart Broad left out and Jonny Bairstow injured, England started the first Test without their combined 343 Test caps — and succeeded handsomely.

Chief among the conundrums is who should bat at No 3 — and England have plenty of possibilities. The problem is, none of them is entirely convincing.

Moeen Ali, the incumbent, seems the least plausible option, having made nought and three here. Bayliss generously described him as ‘a chance’, but added: ‘He’s had a few opportunities, let’s be honest, up the order and at this stage hasn’t really taken them.’

That leaves three serious cont enders, assuming Joe Denly doesn’t come from nowhere to win his first cap. Bayliss admitted Jos Buttler would have batted at No 3 in Galle had England bowled first and Ali got through lots of overs.

But, with Ben Foakes making the debut from heaven, Jonny Bairstow’s likeliest route back into the side — assuming he continues to make good progress on his twisted ankle — is as a specialist batsman.

Then there’s Ben Stokes, who is understood to be keen to try his hand at first drop, despite only twice batting as high as No 4: once when England were trying to set up a declaration at Rajkot.

‘Obviously Jonny’s an option,’ said Bayliss. ‘But we think Stokes has got as good a technique as anyone else to bat No 3.’

The sense of a batting unit still up in the air belied Bayliss’s claim that ‘we’re starting to get a little closer to a stable order’, especially since he still believes Root should resume his role at No 3. But if Stokes gets the job, it would at least allow Bairstow to come in at No 5, which he would prefer.

To further complicate matters, Bayliss wouldn’t even rule out Bairstow reclaiming the gloves from Foakes, who here became only the second England wicketkeeper, after Matt Prior, to score a Test century on his debut.

It would be a mistake as for all the talent of Bairstow and Buttler, who himself was unhappy not to get the gloves, Foakes looked a notch above both.

Then there’s the bowling. Palle- kele, deep in Sri Lanka’ s verdant hill country, usually offers more to the seamers than any other venue in the country and Bayliss wouldn’t rule out adding a fourth to help Jimmy Anderson, Sam Curran and Stokes.

That could mean a reprieve for Broad, who, Bayliss claimed, agreed with his own omission in Galle, or Chris Woakes, who four years ago took six wickets at Pallekele in a one-day international. A first cap for Warwickshire’s Olly Stone, the quickest bowler on tour, is the outside bet. But f our seamers would mean dropping a spinner — probably Adil Rashid after Jack Leach combined economy with incision to claim five wickets — and it might also mean no place for Bairstow. The possibilities seem endless, a position Bayliss viewed with his customary nonchalance. ‘We want pressure on every position in the team, which we haven’t had over the last two or three years. That ups the standard of the guys in the team who have to look over their shoulder and think :“I’ ve got to score runs and take wickets here or I’m going to miss out.” ‘ They might fi nd themselves out of the team because they are not scoring runs and taking wickets. That is just a fact of life at this level.’ Suddenly, England’s cup is running over. They will not want to waste a drop in Pallekele.