HOW SRI LANKA FELL INTO MY TRAP

AS a Test cricketer you want to play every single match and you never want to be told you are the one to be left out. Conditions in Sri Lanka don’t tend to suit seam bowlers closer to seven foot than six, though. So was I surprised to be selected for the first Test match of this winter? No.

Because last summer, I consistently took wickets. I am the leading wicket- taker in the World Test Championship and I’ve almost been in the form of my life over the past 18 months.

On the flip side of that, however, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d been left out here in Galle.

It was quite clear ahead of this two-match series that I would play one match and Jimmy Anderson would play one match. Of course, that could change but that was what we had in our heads.

We have Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes coming back for the tour of India and so we will have a different looking side again there.

With conditions here not overly conducive to seam, my goal has been to play two out of six Tests here and with a good run of form I might play three.

I’m using the rest of my time to try to improve as a bowler and working on my fitness with half an eye on the rest of the packed Test match calendar ahead.

HOW THEY FELL INTO MY TRAP

THE third innings of this Test was certainly more like what we would expect a contest to be like out here in Sri Lanka.

Test players don’t tend to make the same mistakes twice so we were prepared to work hard to take 10 wickets second time around.

Admittedly, it was very satisfying to take three in the first innings: it doubled my tally for Tests in Sri Lanka, and is the equivalent of six elsewhere in the world, I reckon.

As a seam bowler in England, you look to bring the batsman forward and get the slips and wicketkeeper into play but that’s not your modus operandi out here. It’s about variation of pace and being skilful. I decided the night before the game that when I first bowled to a righthander, I would try to bowl my quicker ball outside off-stump, followed by the leg-cutter in a bid to draw the batsman into the stroke.

Very rarely do plans like that come to fruition, so it was pleasing when I delivered it perfectly and Kusal Mendis nicked behind.

Equally so with the ‘team’ wicket that got us started with the dismissal of Lahiru Thirimanne on that first morning. In the warm-up game in Hambantota, we trialled a leg-gully position and bowled to a middle-and-leg or leg-stump line.

Batsmen said they found it hard to control whether the ball went in the air or not, so we went with it.

It felt like it offered a threat for lengthy periods and potentially that’s something we could take forward to Indian venues like Chennai, if pitches are similar.

These are alien conditions for us and communication is everything for sharing experiences and knowledge of conditions. It’s one of the reasons we’ve brought over people like Jacques Kallis. You have to listen to someone who scored so many runs in Sri Lanka.

PRIVILEGED TO BE IN ROOT ERA

JOE ROOT’S innings was one of the best by an England batsman in Asia. He has worked incredibly hard this winter and, as teammates, we are in a privileged position to see that work first-hand.

He’s been quite open about the fact that over the past 12 months he hasn’t scored the runs he would have wanted to, but I’m a believer that the game pays you back what you put in and he’s been paid back with a fine double hundred. For someone of his stature to put in so many hours developing his game tells you why he is where he is and why he’s so respected.

All our players hung on his every run this week. We have a youngish group and he has such an influence on it. Some of batsmen are in awe of how he is playing: you can almost see Zak Crawley and Dan Lawrence growing in confidence watching.

Even old buggers like me and Jos Buttler were saying: ‘how good is it to have this bloke in our team?’ I’ve said a few times over the years how privileged I have felt to play in the same era as Jimmy Anderson and I can say the same thing about Joe.

Over recent months, he has made a few changes to these trigger movements but I would say this particular innings was above all a tactical masterclass.

It was like watching a Mahela Jayawardene double, a player in mastery of his own conditions, and that’s the biggest compliment I could pay him.

Let’s not forget Joe didn’t play in South Africa this winter so he’d not had a visit to the middle since September. That shows a high skill level to be able to pick up like that.

ISOLATION’S BIG TEST MENTALLY

HAVING Moeen Ali back after 13 days of quarantine was a great lift for everyone. He’s a fantastic guy to have around and could play a major part in our next six weeks.

Spending two weeks in a hotel room might take some recovering from not only physically but mentally. You are away from your family, but also your team-mates.

When I first played internationals we would all meet in the bar. That’s how we kept in touch outside gametime. Now Call of Duty is king. In bubble life it has become our primary form of communication.

We’re not really allowed around the hotel, because there have been Covid cases within the staff. We have to eat dinner alone and then head back to our rooms. COD gives us a chance to chat.