Debutant Ben Foakes unbeaten on 87 after leading England recovery in Galle
Ben Foakes was planning a winter off. Having been omitted from the Test squad he was understandably given leave of absence for any more Lions’ duty. But on the island that gave us the notion of serendipity everything has suddenly changed for Foakes in an unexpectedly benign way. First there was Jonny Bairstow’s damaged ankle when playing football, which prompted his call-up. Then last week with Joe Denly failing to convince there was a rethink and a reshuffle, which catapulted Foakes into the Test team to bat at seven and keep wicket.
Well, on the first day in Galle, which was surprisingly dry, there was no time for Foakes to demonstrate his wicketkeeping skills mainly because he was calmly stitching the England innings together when it was in danger of unravelling all too chaotically. Foakes, by simply treating every ball on its merits, ensured that England did not, after all, squander what should be a very good toss to win. At the end of the day he was unbeaten on 87 out of England’s total of 321-8, a brilliant start to a Test career, which will surely now continue throughout this series and possibly way beyond that.
The pitch was on its best behaviour on Tuesday under heavy cloud cover. Some turn was evident for the spinners but it was far from vicious. In contrast to the series against South Africa Sri Lanka’s solitary paceman, Suranga Lakmal, was given the new ball. Yet at the start England could not press home their advantage. In a frantic first session they lost five wickets for 113 runs in 29 overs. As promised the tourists displayed audacity but not elite audacity.
Lakmal made the initial incursions. Rory Burns on his debut had hit two crisp boundaries but then an innocuous leg-side delivery brushed his bat and he was caught behind. Out came Moeen for one ball: it was full in length, cunningly delivered from around the wicket and it sent the off-stump flying as Moeen pushed forward with his bat but not his body. Joe Root survived the hat-trick ball with no alarm but this was not the ideal start.
Keaton Jennings and Root responded to these early setbacks positively adding 62 from 14 overs. On 26 Jennings offered a simple catch to first slip from an off-break from Akila Dananjaya and Angelo Mathews dropped it. In the meantime Root had batted in a princely manner in an early attempt to seize the initiative against the spinners. Yet before lunch England would lose three wickets to those spinners and none of the deliveries concerned turned an inch.
First Root came down the pitch, a ploy he had used successfully earlier on, only to turn a Rangana Herath delivery into a yorker, which squeezed past his bat on to the middle stump. This was Herath’s 100th Test wicket in Galle and thus he became only the third cricketer to take so many at one ground after Muttiah Muralitharan (at three venues in Sri Lanka) and Jimmy Anderson at Lord’s.
Next to go was Jennings, who tried to cut the first ball of a new spell from Dilruwan Perera as if he had not registered that he was now facing the quicker, skiddier one among the offspinners. Up until then Jennings had been impressively proactive, often with an array of sweeps on either side of the wicket. The sweeping of Ben Stokes was less effective. He hit one with authority to the boundary; then against Perera he tried again with his body so far to the off-side that the ball bowled him behind his legs.
After lunch England showed more discretion, elite discretion in fact. There was nothing frivolous from Jos Buttler. After a couple of sweetly-timed boundaries the field was often set deep when he was on strike. So he was content to pick off the singles and punish the occasional poor delivery. But on 38 Buttler, stuck on the back foot, was well caught behind off Perera, the best of the spinners on the day.
Foakes, England’s third keeper in three Tests – this has not happened since 1963 when AC Smith was followed by Keith Andrew and Jim Parks – remained wonderfully composed, strolling singles to more deep-set fields. Sam Curran offered vital support. He has now batted nine times for England and on eight occasions he has reached 20 or more. No wonder they picked him.
Here Curran bided his time. After 36 balls he had made six runs; after 37 he had 12 as he skipped down the pitch to crack the ball way over long-on. There would be two more sixes in his innings of 48, which ended when he tried a flatbatted drive and edged to slip, where Dimesh Chandimal was in some distress due to England’s recovery and a groin injury.
While Foakes purred along, Adil Rashid then produced an impish gem, which showed no great respect for the venerable Herath. He was caught at slip for 35 from 38 balls. The lower order had shown the way.