**Official** Sri Lanka in England and Ireland 2016

[grecian]

Eng ODI squad to play SL: Morgan (capt), Moeen, Bairstow, Buttler, Finn, Jordan, Hales, Plunkett, Rashid, Root, Roy, Vince, Willey, Woakes

Eng T20 squad to play SL: Morgan (capt), Bairstow, Billings, Buttler, Dawson, Jordan, Malan, Mills, Plunkett, Rashid, Roy, Vince, Willey

Cook's rehearsal for these squads in vain I see, shame.

 

[Compton]

Cook's rehearsal for these squads in vain I see, shame.

That is a shame. I was sure that we'd see Bend it Like Beckham II: Ramp it Like Cookie

 

[Howe_zat]

Cook's innings was proof that Tests are always going to be the superior format, even when they turn into one-day cricket, the context makes it so more entertaining. T20 may manufacture a run chase in every game, but there's so much more emotion behind it when a run chase manifests organically in a format that has no guarantee of being exciting at all.

Similarly you will never see a miscued ramp for two as good as the one played by Cook yesterday. The decade of strokelessness that preceded it is what made it special.

 

[Compton]

Cook's innings was proof that Tests are always going to be the superior format, even when they turn into one-day cricket, the context makes it so more entertaining. T20 may manufacture a run chase in every game, but there's so much more emotion behind it when a run chase manifests organically in a format that has no guarantee of being exciting at all.

Similarly you will never see a miscued ramp for two as good as the one played by Cook yesterday. The decade of strokelessness that preceded it is what made it special.

This x10000.

Only in Test Cricket can the England Captain spend a decade building up to a meme ramp shot for two.

 

[JRC67]

So far the England top 5 have scored 679 to Sri Lanka's 622. Sri Lanka could of course go ahead today, but they've already lost 25 top 5 wickets to England's 21.

So one innings less and 57 runs less. Being fair at a slightly worse average. Wonder how they compare in the last 2 tests after Sri Lanka had acclimatised?

 

[Groundking]

Being fair he hasn't been helped by dropped catches and a missed stumping on pretty ordinary surfaces for spinners to bowl on. Clearly not in the same league as Herath, but I'm not sure there is an England qualified spinner who is. Think he's pretty safe while there is so much uncertainty in the top 5.

I think he's safe as long as he still continues to perform to a decent standard with the bat, as our seem up attack is performing at such a level you really don't need a spinner (Broad has 58 @ 22.34, Anderson 51 @ 19.7, Finn 30 @ 25.13 Stokes @ 32.44 and Wood and Woakes have taken 26 @ 34.88), however it becomes a serious problem if and when Broad and Anderson's form fades away again.

It's been said before, but this is not really a problem. England do not need Ali to bowl in unfavourable conditions that much, as they have 4 quicks. From an England management perspective, it makes sense to be patient, and allow Moeen to improve his bowling.

But he's really not, if you take out his (fantastic) series against India he's taken 45 @ 48.68 in 21 matches, which has pretty much been his average since the start of the Pakistan series.

It's a problem this winter and I think it's debeatable whether he is improving as a spinner or not, or has any confidence in his bowling. If they feel like he is going no-where they may have to look somewhere else for the rest of the summer.

My feeling with Moeen for a while is that he hasn't been bad enough that you have to drop him (regardless of whether there is a replacement ready), but if someone was bowling decent spin you wouldn't think twice about replacing him.

He's got this great opportunity but he hasn't really grasped it yet. He's a placeholder currently until someone better comes along- or he improves dramatically (as either a bat or bowler).

If he doesn't perform better with the ball this winter and fails to have any significant contribution with the bat (like how he didn't really over winter, outside his 61 at Centurion, when we had already won the series) then I'd bin him for somebody else to have a chance, as even though he does have a knack of picking up an important player, only getting 2 wickets a match isn't really good enough, as we're not always going to have pitches where our seem options are fully effective, and he's shown so far he's not going to pick up the slack.

 

[AndrewB]

So one innings less and 57 runs less. Being fair at a slightly worse average. Wonder how they compare in the last 2 tests after Sri Lanka had acclimatised?

Final figures were England 679 for 21 wickets, SL 660 for 26 wickets.
If you ignore the first Test: England 568 for 16 wickets, SL 513 for 16 wickets.

(Note that the England figures include Bairstow's last innings but not Cook's).

 

[JRC67]

Final figures were England 679 for 21 wickets, SL 660 for 26 wickets.
If you ignore the first Test: England 568 for 16 wickets, SL 513 for 16 wickets.

(Note that the England figures include Bairstow's last innings but not Cook's).

Thanks for that info, difference was quite small and Sri Lanka were facing Broad and Anderson. Would be interesting to see how our top order would fair against Broad and Anderson in the UK.

 

[YorksLanka]

Milinda Siriwardana dropped from ODI squad | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
SL odi squad. Personally I am disappointed to see Siriwardena not included.

 

[Howe_zat]

I'm disappointed to not have him, when bowling the others call him 'siri' which suggests he's about to set an alarm for them or tell them the time in Honolulu

 

[YorksLanka]

Thanks for that info, difference was quite small and Sri Lanka were facing Broad and Anderson. Would be interesting to see how our top order would fair against Broad and Anderson in the UK.

Also worth noting that the England wickets we took were without Prasad for the whole series and Chameera for most of it so I do feel that would've had an impact too,considering Prasad has been the spearhead of our attack for a while now and chameera is easily our quickest bowler.
Obviously we lost this series as our batting didn't turn up. The two openers struggled until the second innings of Durham, Mendis did OK for a youngster at three; Chandimal only had one good innings;same for Mathews ( who I expected a lot more from along with Chandi);thirrimanne was not worth his selection..Herath outperformed his ability with the bat with the scores he made and our tail need to realise which end of the bat to hold..gone are the days in international cricket where you don't expect you bowlers to contribute something with the bat.

 

[91Jmay]

Thanks for that info, difference was quite small and Sri Lanka were facing Broad and Anderson. Would be interesting to see how our top order would fair against Broad and Anderson in the UK.

The difference wasn't quite small. Sri Lanka essentially had another half an innings and scored less runs over the series.

 

[weldone]

How big is the Dublin ground where the first ODI will be played? Will the SL openers be easily able to clear the rope from miscued shots?

 

[91Jmay]

It isn't massive, but the pitch generally is a slow/low affair.

 

[Prince EWS]

It isn't massive, but the pitch generally is a slow/low affair.

Yeah it's tiny but the ball usually does a fair bit up front, plus it's slow as you said. You don't usually see a lot of boundaries early on; it's an "explode later on against the old ball" sort of venue.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah it's tiny but the ball usually does a fair bit up front, plus it's slow as you said. You don't usually see a lot of boundaries early on; it's an "explode later on against the old ball" sort of venue.

Thought this was mainly because Ireland usually have some decent medium pace with the new ball, and later on they bowl Kevin O'Brien

 

[Prince EWS]

Thought this was mainly because Ireland usually have some decent medium pace with the new ball, and later on they bowl Kevin O'Brien

Well yeah this is a big part of it, but that's still going to be the case here I suspect. I don't think we'll see Sri Lanka get off to a flyer, but they may post a big score anyway.

 

[vcs]

Random observation of the day : Kevin O'Brien and Kevin De Bruyne have similar sounding names and look pretty similar as well.

 

[weldone]

Well yeah this is a big part of it, but that's still going to be the case here I suspect. I don't think we'll see Sri Lanka get off to a flyer, but they may post a big score anyway.

Interesting, because SL's ODI approach in the last 1 year has been the exact opposite of what you say. They either score 70+ in first 10, or lose 3+ wickets in first 10.

 

[Prince EWS]

Interesting, because SL's ODI approach in the last 1 year has been the exact opposite of what you say. They either score 70+ in first 10, or lose 3+ wickets in first 10.

Reckon it might be 3+ wickets if they stick to that tbh, especially if at least one of Murtagh or Rankin play.