The comparisons are well-rehearsed and unavoidable. English goalkeepers and wicketkeepers used to be the envy of the world and now, it seems, the cupboard is barer than a Barmy Army beer belly. For Scott Carson’s Croatian calamity, read Matt Prior’s Sri Lankan slips.

Since Alec Stewart retired in 2003, England have tried three different wicketkeepers, Geraint Jones, Chris Read and now Prior in their search for a Pommie version of Adam Gilchrist.

Prior started his Test career last May in spectacular fashion with a century on debut against West Indies. He struggled with bat and gloves against India and was criticised heavily for his verbal aggression behind the stumps. He started tidily in Sri Lanka but finished poorly, his shabby glovework balanced to an extent by two gutsy and intelligent displays with the bat at Kandy and Colombo.

Prior missed a stumping in the first Test at Kandy but that error was outweighed by a fighting 63 in the second innings that deserved to save the game. He then produced an intelligently crafted 79 in the first innings of the second Test at Colombo that helped dig England out of a hole, towards respectability.

At the start of Sri Lanka’s only innings at Colombo, Prior took a terrific, diving catch low to his left early on. At that point, having made his runs, he was having a good match. But late in the innings, he dropped two catches and was badly wrong-footed for a third chance off Steve Harmison.

But at Galle Prior’s keeping – and England’s fielding as a whole – descended into a worrying state of mediocrity. England missed seven chances, three of them by Prior, all diving to his right.

The one that really questioned his competence was an edge from Mahela Jayawardene off Matthew Hoggard, where Prior actually withdrew his hand as the ball flew low to his right. The Sri Lanka captain, dropped on 66, went on to make 213 not out.

Prior’s right-sided frailty has been especially harsh on Ryan Sidebottom. Prior has dropped five catches, all to his right, off Sidebottom in England’s past six Tests. For Sidebottom, who is used to seeing the safe hands of Chris Read behind the stumps at Nottinghamshire, this must be especially tough to swallow.

In Prior’s defence, the Galle stadium is considered a poor seeing ground, a suggestion borne out by an uncharacteristic miss yesterday by Prasanna Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan keeper who has otherwise been excellent all series.

Prior’s problems behind the stumps in this series were symptomatic of a wider malaise in England’s fielding. England missed some 15 chances this series that cost the team more than 500 runs.

They have lost their entire close-catching cordon from the 2005 Ashes: Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss, who were the regular slips, and Ashley Giles who was a solid gully fielder. In this series, England had Ian Bell at first slip and Paul Collingwood at second. Both are good fielders but neither is a specialist slip fielder. Bell dropped two catches at Kandy that cost almost 100 runs between them. More than once the ball has passed between Prior and Bell, indicating a lack of understanding that is so essential between keeper and slips.

In March, England will have their first full-time fielding coach. Richard Halsall, a Zimbabwe-born former Cambridge University cricketer, has been hired on the recommendation of Peter Moores, with whom he worked at Sussex.

Halsall will bring innovation and bonhomie to the dressing room but catching is an instinctive discipline and England are short of players with fly-paper hands.

Prior will keep his place for the tour of New Zealand in February and March, the lack of alternatives ensures that. Phil Mustard, the Durham keeper and England No 2, has impressed the management on this tour but he has had no chance to press his claims for selection.

Prior, the first defining selection of the Moores coaching era, is under pressure but after his rollercoaster start to his Test career, he has quickly come to expect nothing else. As he said recently: “You grow a few more layers of skin, and become used to it. If people are eyeing you up, then anything you do, they are going to be on to you.”

John Stern is editor of the Wisden Cricketer

Costly misses

Matt Prior’s misses since Test debut in May 2007 (10 Tests)

Chris Gayle (dropped on 4; went on to make 13)
Dinesh Ramdin dropped (4/34)
Wasim Jaffer (0/58)
Sachin Tendulkar (20/82)
VVS Laxman (41/51)
Jehan Mubarak (0/9)
Dilhara Fernando (21/36*)
Dilhara Fernando (28/36*)
Mahela Jayawardene (66/213*)
Tillakaratne Dilshan (54/84)
Mahela Jayawardene (154/213*)

Total cost: 350 runs

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