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England in Sri Lanka

Tuesday, November 18 2003

If history is anything to go by, the current England tour of Sri Lanka should be pretty lively fare. England have only previously played five tests and previous ODI’s there, but they have seen plenty of controversy, with lots of men behaving very badly indeed. Should we expect more of the same? Hopefully we will be spared the inept umpiring and crass behaviour that soured last tour, even if the prospect of Clarke exchanging opinions with Sangakarra is fairly entertaining, but the cricket should certainly be interesting.

It should also be a tough few weeks for the visitors. If Vaughan’s comments about the relative one-day experience of the two sides sounded like getting his excuses in first, maybe that is because he knows that England’s one-day record in Sri Lanka is atrocious. They even managed to lose one of the two limited overs games played before Sri Lanka’s inaugural test way back in 1982, which is a bit like losing to Bangladesh now. Subsequently, they lost both games in 1993 and all three in 2001. None of those five games were even close, and a quick look at the scorecards tells us why, as England’s highest total was a paltry 180. Even though England’s bowlers have occasionally managed to contain the home side, their batsmen have consistently failed to be competitive. Unless England can regularly post scores of at least 250, it’s hard to foresee anything other than another one-day whitewash this week. However, if Trescothick & Vaughan can provide a decent platform for Flintoff and Blackwell to produce some fireworks, maybe the hosts are in for a proper contest.

The tests, of course, were a completely different story last time, when England lost by an innings in Galle but came back to win the series 2-1. This was a major achievement by the England side, and marked the high point of the Fletcher era. He would have known that England’s previous performances in Asia had been hopeless, culminating in their first ever test defeat to Sri Lanka in 1993. Then, they clearly didn’t want to be there, and had to obvious game plan beyond moaning about the actions of Warnaweera and Muralitharan. However, two years ago Fletcher had helped them develop rather more effective tactics to nullify Muralitharan and the whole side had the resilience to come back from that disastrous first test.

England’s best batsmen from two years ago will be playing again. There was never much doubt that Thorpe would be welcomed back in time for this winter’s tours, and Trescothick’s record against Asian attacks has continued to be excellent. Vaughan has, of course, emerged as a world class batsman since 2001 and Hussain should make some solid contributions. However, Butcher is a concern, not so much because of his poor form in Bangladesh, but more because of his discomfort at starting against spin. There is a case for he and Vaughan switching positions at the top of the order, as Vaughan is by far the better player of the slow stuff.

One of the harder decisions for the selectors will be whether to retain Clarke now that Flintoff has returned. Flintoff could hardly be less effective at number six than Hick was two years ago, but he is still unproven against high quality spin. Dispatching Paul Adams to all parts is one thing, but Murali is another matter. My guess is that Clarke will stay in the side, albeit dropping a place. That leaves one less bowling place, which would probably mean playing only one of the spinners and two of Harmison, Hoggard and Anderson.

And that may well be where England’s greatest problem will lie. Two years ago, England’s most successful bowlers were, by some distance, Gough and Caddick, each of whom took more wickets than Croft or Giles. It is possible that the younger guys will rise to the occasion, but it is a big ask and it’s hard to see England taking 20 wickets. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, know that they have the necessary fire power to win at least one of the tests, especially given England’s ability to collapse horribly from time to time. I take the home side to win, maybe 1-0.

Written by David Lewis

Posted by James