England have delayed declaring their full hand ahead of Saturday’s first Test
match in Kandy. In an ideal world they would have allowed all their Test
players to take part in today’s final warm-up match - a pukka three-day
first-class contest against a Board President’s XI in Colombo – but they
have left out Ryan Sidebottom and Paul Collingwood to allow all the
candidates for the two vacant places another chance to show what they can do
in local conditions.
England’s selection for today makes plain that the sixth and final batting
spot – the one left open by the decision to drop Andrew Strauss – is still
very much up for grabs for both Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara, while Steve
Harmison appears to be vying with James Anderson for the third fast-bowling
spot behind Sidebottom and Matthew Hoggard.
As expected, Michael Vaughan, the captain, is preparing to resume his place as
an opening batsman, a position he last occupied in Lahore in December 2005,
which was also his last Test match appearance overseas.
One of the key battlegrounds of the series will be Vaughan’s ability to
provide England with good starts in partnership with Alastair Cook. Cook and
Strauss never put together a century stand in 14 Tests.
Stuart Broad’s omission indicates that he will probably have to wait a little
longer for his first Test cap, but Bopara, a year older at 22, is close to
what could prove to be a breakthrough into the national side.
Like Cook, Bopara – who grew up in the unpromising cricketing nursery of
Forest Green, east London – is another product of the development programme
being overseen by Graham Gooch at Essex. Gooch is no less excited about
Bopara’s prospects than he was about Cook’s. The former England captain has
predicted that once Bopara plays for the Test side, there will be no getting
him out of it again, so talented and determined is he.
The memory of how coolly Bopara coped against Sri Lanka – and Muttiah
Muralitharan in particular – in a tight situation at the World Cup burns
bright in the minds of the England management.
It is likely that today’s playoff between Bopara and Shah is merely a device
to double-check that Bopara is ready to become the fourth Anglo-Asian (after
Shah, Monty Panesar and Sajid Mahmood) in two years to make the step up to
Test level. But Shah is a fine player of spin and arguably also deserves a
place in the Test XI.
Asked how many Test places remained open, Peter Moores, the coach, said
yesterday: “From a batting point of view, one. From a bowling point of view,
it depends a bit on the wicket and how people go. There are a few
permutations we could take out of the bowling. They all offer slightly
different things, from bounce, to normal swing, to reverse swing.
“In many ways Stuart has been unlucky because he has got a knack of taking
wickets and has already learnt to cut the ball. Stuart has done really well,
so it was a tough decision on who we went for. Jimmy has proved he is a very
skilful bowler. He has lots of options, not just with the new ball, but with
his cutters and reverse swing.
“This game [on Sunday] will be a finding-out process for Steve. With only
three seamers, there will be more overs to bowl. He is the same as everybody
else. It is a pretty even playing field. We will pick who we think are the
best bowlers. You don’t want to take risks unless you have to.”
Moores know that England have to start strongly. It always helps to land the
first punch, but in this series more than most it is vital that England do
so. Kandy presents them with perhaps their best opportunity to win a game.
Situated in Sri Lanka’s hill country, it escapes the crippling humidity of
the coastal venues and the pitches at the Asgiriya stadium should provide
the greatest help to their fast bowlers, so if they cannot avoid defeat
here, they are going to find life even tougher later on.
There is a theory that England are fortunate that the itinerary was switched
at the 11th hour to allow more time for the stadium in Galle to be prepared
for its first big match since it was devastated by the tsunami in 2004. But
history shows that Sri Lanka’s opponents tend to play Murali better the
longer a series goes on (his strike-rate rises from 52 balls per wicket in
the opening matches of series to 58.2 by the third, his average from 20.8 to
23.3), so there is a case for thinking that if England are going to lose in
Galle, where Murali and Sri Lanka are almost unbeatable, they might have
been better off getting that game out of the way at the start, in the hope
that their batsmen would have correctly calibrated their strokes to his fast
arm by the time they reached Kandy.
As it is, England’s overall strategy is probably to try to steal a win in
Kandy and then hang on for draws in Colombo and Galle. Vaughan will remember
that England held out in Galle and Kandy four years ago in his first major
overseas series as captain and will believe there is no reason why they
can’t play a similar game of patience now.
It may help them that with play scheduled to start each day at 10.30am, it is
unlikely that the full allocation of 90 overs will be possible before the
onset of dusk. But England should have no illusions about the magnitude of
their task: in six years Sri Lanka have lost at home only to Australia and
Pakistan. They have never lost at home in a series played at this time of
year.
After two years of misery with injuries, England crave a period of stability,
but they can perhaps take heart from the fact that the Sri Lankans are
hardly in the groove themselves. They have played only five Tests this year
– three against Bangladesh and two against Australia – and their selectors
jump more tracks than an opening spell from Harmison.
Remember Sanath Jayasuriya being pulled out of Test retirement in mid-series
in England last year? Remember Marvan Atapattu’s jibes about jokers and
muppets? Part of the reason Jayasuriya was recalled to the side in England
and Atapattu in Sri Lanka v England
First Test, Kandy Starts on Saturday
Probable teams England M Vaughan (capt), A Cook, I Bell, K Pietersen,
P Collingwood, R Bopara or O Shah, M Prior, S Broad or J Anderson, R
Sidebottom, M Hoggard, M Panesar
Sri Lanka U Tharanga, M Vandort, K Sangakkara, M Jayawardene (capt), S
Jayasuriya, C Silva, P Jayawardene, C Vaas, D Fernando, L Malinga, M
Muralitharan
TV: Sky Sports 2, Saturday, 6am
Australia earlier this month, was that Sri Lanka – like England – have been
struggling to put together decent opening partnerships. They have gone 14
Tests and 20 months without a first-wicket stand of more than 53 and in that
period have got through six different combinations. Jayasuriya, once the
foundation stone of so many big totals, but now 38 years old, finished the
series in Australia batting in the middle order in the hope of escaping
further torment from his long-standing nemesis Brett Lee.
If England are to have any chance, they must strike early with the new ball
and expose the mighty middle-order pairing of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela
Jayawardene, both aged 30 and in the prime of their careers. This is the
principal reason Harmison cannot be risked.
England’s other hope – fanciful, perhaps – is that Chaminda Vaas, like
Jayasuriya, might be coming to the end of the road. He was dropped for the
last Test in Hobart, but will surely claim his 100th cap next weekend and
demonstrate the importance of accuracy and swing ahead of pace in these
conditions.
Dilhara Fernando may also be short of his best. He was named on Friday in a
14-man squad for Kandy, but is attempting to get by on cortisone injections
into a sore ankle ahead of surgery in April. England and Andrew Flintoff
know all about the dangers of that course of action. ENGLAND TEAM (to play
a Board President’s XI today): Vaughan (capt), Cook, Bell, Pietersen, Shah,
Bopara, Prior, Harmison, Hoggard, Anderson, Panesar
