Bess and Leach much to learn in the slow lane

IT IS not easy going from your customary walk-on role to that of main character, as Dom Bess and Jack Leach will attest. Typically sat in the wings for swathes of green home summers, you are then expected to take centre stage on the parched earth of foreign lands. Such is the life of an England spinner.

Both lacked rhythm going into this series, yet their displays so far in the second Test have arguably thrown up more concerns than the first.

Yes, this was a more classical Test pitch and bowlers had to work hard. But not for 20 years had an

England side dismissed Sri Lanka in their own conditions without a single wicket falling to spin.

By his own admission, Bess’ five-for on the opening day of this series was a gimme and, while his bowling has tightened, there are worrying signs ahead. His first two overs yesterday began with a drag down that was slapped to the boundary rider at deep point and a full toss that was worked for one.

Leach was entrusted with 16 overs on day two — twice as many as Bess — yet only two were maidens. Not that operating with protection on the boundary is uncommon. Graeme Swann, England’s most prolific off-spinner, used to set a deep field and then bring it in. Comparisons with Swann do off-spinners like Bess few favours but a note of their differing lines is interesting: the former preferred the Australian one outside off-stump, bringing both edges of the bat into play, while the latter has a tendency to be ‘too straight’. Yesterday, the Sri Lankans picked him off the stumps to leg comfortably.

One of the mistakes this week was that their adjustments came too late. Both men reacted to the need to get the ball into the surface during the first Test by applying the same tactics here when flight and guile was needed.

International cricket’s a tough school but it will only get harder.