England treated their fans to another rollercoaster ride on day 1 of the 2nd Test against Sri Lanka with Sam Curran and Jos Buttler hitting breezy half-centuries to drag their total up to a respectable 285 on a pitch that is already showing signs of spin. Having won the toss and elected to bat, the top order once again decided that the best course of action was to attack from the off. Wickets fell at regular intervals interspersed by some powerful hitting particularly from Curran who for the 3rd successive time in his relatively short career brought up his half-century with a 6.
3 is the Magic Number
We’d been informed prior to the game that Ben Stokes was to be promoted up the order to 3 after Moeen Ali’s brief stint up there ended in failure. As within any walk of life, making a mistake shouldn’t be seen as too negative a thing so long as you learn from that mistake. Unfortunately for England the view that number 3 is a position that just about anyone can play and do alright in has been a mistake they’ve been making since the retirement of Jonathan Trott. In that sense much like their failure to replace Andrew Strauss at the very top of the order, this is a mistake that has been going on far too long to not have rectified. Poor Moeen has never looked comfortable higher up the order at Test level and yet whether it’s because he’s willing to accommodate the request or whether he’s told he has to bat there or lose his place, they just keep on trying to shove this obviously round peg into a patently square hole and expecting a different result.
Will Stokes fair any better? I doubt it! The worrying thing is that there aren't exactly a load of viable candidates to fill the number 3 at the moment. The emergence of Ben Foakes has really just provided England with more questions than solutions. There had been talk of Bairstow coming back into the team as a number 3 or even an opening batsman. Had that have been the case they might have had a top 6 line-up with 4 of the players ideally suited to batting in the number 6 position. This kind of thinking reminds me of watching my beloved Tottenham Hotspur play in the early 90s under Ossie Ardiles where he would frequently deploy 4 forwards plus a host of attacking midfielders in the kind of "formation" that has never really been dignified with a name. Exciting as it may have been to watch, it was pretty unsuccessful and ultimately his managerial reign at the club didn't last long. England desperately need to find a balance to their team both in terms of the personnel actually selected and the way they go about playing (see below). They might well get away with playing like this against Sri Lanka and the West Indies but will Australia be so forgiving next summer?
While I've argued for some time that Root should bat number 4 in most situations, it seems to me that unless England decide to drop either Buttler or Foakes for a specialist top order play then he really should be the man to move up to 3. The only other option would be for England to drop a bowler in order to accommodate a player who is a natural 3 but I think that Root seems pretty happy in having the 6 bowling options at his disposal.
Is England's approach to batting smart and brave or foolish and reckless?
England's decision to be ultra attacking in the opening exchanges of the last match was never really tested after debutant Ben Foakes hit a calm and composed century to guide them to a decent score. Today there was no such innings and England were ultimately indebted to a 60 run partnership for the last wicket to get them up to beyond the 250 mark, a score that many pundits are suggesting is about par for this pitch.
<grammarly-btn>Of course, as with any match and any pitch, we simply don't know what a good score is until both sides have played on it. However, history shows that generally speaking the Pallekele pitch in Candy will actually get easier to bat on with sides historically hitting higher scores in their 2nd innings. With the exception of the last match played here which ended in India thumping Sri Lanka by an innings and plenty then the team batting first has always scored more runs in their 2nd innings (see above)
I still feel that England's approach to batting at present is too gung-ho and makes them very susceptible to the kind monumental batting collapses that we've seen happen all too regularly over the past couple of years. I'm all for being positive but that doesn't mean that they need to play a shot a ball. There is no trust in their defensive techniques or their ability to concentrate for long periods and the theory behind accumulating runs seems to be one that more closely resembles white ball cricket - hit out or get out. In fact, I wonder if this brand of cricket isn't designed to assist the side with their ongoing preparations for the 2019 World Cup? In general Baylis and Farbrace's focus since taking over the team's management has been to improve England's white ball cricket and have them win their first World Cup in a tournament that will be staged on home soil.
<grammarly-btn>This kind of thinking is a complete u-turn on the way that England used to approach the game even as recently as 10 years ago. Back then the ODI side was very much seen as a good place to get a cricketer started, the kind of environment where you could get a good look at a youngster before promoting him to the big time that was Test cricket. However those days have gone and England are now happy to bring in the likes of Rashid and Buttler into the Test side, individuals who have barely played any red ball cricket over the past couple of years and put them into a team that wants to go along at 4 an over for the entire day. Credit though must go to Buttler, he has shown the kind of cricketing smarts and general ability to adapt his game at Test level and play the kind of innings that is needed when it is needed. His knock today was an exceptional piece of counter attacking batting as he guided England from 89-4 in 26th over to 120-4 by lunch which was taken after 30overs. In a period where England really should have been under immense pressure, Buttler helped contribute 31 runs from just 25 balls, it was just a shame that he couldn't go on to make 3 figures and get England into a dominant position nearer to the 350 mark.
Expect another spin dominated day
I'm still backing Jack Leach to be England's leading wicket-taker in this series. He is currently sat on 6 wickets having gotten a late breakthrough for this evening, that's just 2 behind Moeen Ali who has a total of 8 series wickets so far. If anything I feel that England's shuffling of Moeen up and down the batting line-up will only damage the confidence that he had managed to refind in the last 6 months after a torrid winter in Australia and New Zealand. There are some players that England seem to treat with kid gloves on and others who get it slightly rougher, Moeen seems to faller into the later category. With big turn on offer expect Leach, Moeen and Rashid to do the bulk of the bowling tomorrow as England look to established a first innings lead and put this series to bed as quickly as possible.
Video Highlights to follow when available
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