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By Madushka Balasuriya
The last time an England side rocked up on Sri Lankan shores in late 2018, it was a settled unit, one that had been together for the better part of four years and were just months away from winning their first ever World Cup title. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, couldn’t buy a win.
A year-and-a-half on, Sri Lanka finally look settled, and England, while still a top-quality unit, are now at the start of their rebuild following last summer’s World Cup heroics.
“It is a different team that we’ve brought this time around,” stated England Captain Joe Root, at the pre-series media briefing in Colombo last evening. “We’re expecting the surfaces to be slightly different, and we’re quite open-minded about what to expect. But ultimately it gives an opportunity for some of the other guys to show what they’re capable of.”
Last time around it was in the midst of the monsoon season, with the weather cooler and more manageable; this time, heat advisory warnings are more common place. England are also now without Adhil Rashid and Moeen Ali – two-thirds of the spin trio that wreaked so much havoc in 2018 on the way to a 3-0 series whitewash. Only Jack Leach remains. The most memorable aspect of that tour, however, was England’s mastery over Sri Lanka’s spinners, as their batsmen refused to be dominated as so many other visiting sides. Root, who was a part of that team, though isn’t getting too far ahead of himself, and expects a different challenge over the next two Tests.
“I think last time we came at a different time of year for starters. It was a lot wetter as well. And I’m sure Mickey [Arthur] and everyone have put their own stamp on things, and are playing cricket very differently.
“There were very extreme conditions last time around, and I felt we found a very good way of exploiting that. It probably suited some of the guys that we had on tour, and the way they played their cricket.
“I think it’s important to have an open mind coming in to this series. If we just went in and expected it to be exactly the same then we could find ourselves getting stuck, and I think it’s really important that we play what is right in front of us, we respect the surface, the opposition and I’m sure there are one or two guys that want to put their stamp on this team, and their way of taking it forward.”
For Sri Lanka, this will be an opportunity at redemption, though in Dilruwan Perera, Lasith Embuldeniya and Lakshan Sandakan, their spin contingent is not as strong as it once was. Sri Lanka Captain Dimuth Karunaratne, however, chose to draw confidence from his seamers’ performances against New Zealand and South Africa in recent tours.
“We didn’t do well in the last series, and they played really well in these conditions. And compared to other countries [we’ve faced at home] they were really good at taking on our spinners in these conditions. I think Dilruwan is there, and there are a few talented young bowlers as well. And we saw against South Africa and New Zealand in recent tours that they have a really good mindset.”
Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur meanwhile believes that recent series wins against West Indies and Zimbabwe have been great learning experiences for his players – in different ways.
“[The performances against West Indies in the ODIs] is certainly how we want to play our cricket, and I think our selections are going to reflect that going forward.
“But just to go back to the Zimbabwe series, we played on incredibly flat and slow wickets, which just sort of did nothing for the game really, and the game just didn’t move at all. And it was kind of a war of attrition, you had to just wear the opposition down. But we got a lot out of that tour, because we had to focus and had to be really disciplined through those two Test matches.
“We find we got a hell of a lot out of that tour which was great for us. Certainly our brand of cricket – and I think that’s the way all teams play cricket now – is you wanna take the game forward. But there are times when the session or game requires that you wear the opposition down, and that was very much our focus in Zimbabwe – primarily because of the conditions.”
Nailing down that brand of cricket, Arthur feels, is helped by the settled nature of Sri Lanka’s squad which he now believes has an ideal blend of youth and experience.
“I think we’re really confident. First of all you’ve got to stay up with the trends of world cricket, and then you sort of look at the brand you wanna play from there, and then you find the players that fit that brand.
“We have some very young players, we have some very exciting players, we have got some very skilled players, intermingled with a couple of experienced players – Angelo [Mathews], [Dinesh] Chandimal, Suranga Lakmal. We feel we’ve got the balance right.”
Sri Lanka play England in the first Test in Galle on 19 March.
