England and Sri Lanka need to rebuild

Wednesday, 26 November 2014 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The home side were thrown into a tour of India and got hammered 5-0 while the visitors are still searching for a way to consistently match the modern one-day game

ESPNCricinfo: There must be some miscommunication somewhere. Each year, Sri Lanka line up a tour around November, and almost invariably, the series is so beset by rain that most matches go unfinished, and the remaining games advantage the chasing side. With four such tours having taken place in the last five years now, the only viable solution is clear: it is time Sri Lanka’s weather took stock of the cricket patterns in the country, when it next schedules its monsoons. So England have arrived to kick off their winter season, dodging downpours like they were questions about Kevin Pietersen’s book, and pumping their words with the positivity they hope will shake up their ODI cricket. Widely touted to flop at next year’s World Cup, the visitors do at least acknowledge that their game needs an overhaul. Moeen Ali was bundled up the order for the warm-up match, and directed to launch a full assault, while batting coach Mark Ramprakash has laid out hopes that the rest of the top order embrace a little more panache themselves.

Tickets for today’s match

Sri Lanka Cricket said a limited number of tickets are available for the 1st ODI. SLC said tickets could be purchased from SLC head office before 12 noon or at the stadium.

England are after ideas. They want to redesign the ponderous ODI cricket they have stuck by for too long, into a nimbler, sleeker model that will catapult them into that leading group of World Cup contenders. On the surface, there is no better place to uncover that tactical gold than in Sri Lanka. Cricket is the most popular sport on the island, but thanks largely to a Civil War that drained the economy and shut an entire swathe of the country out, Sri Lanka’s talent pools are still among the thinnest around. That they have made five major finals in the last seven years (and two other semi-finals as well), is down more to out-thinking opponents, than outplaying them. England won’t mind if a few of the ambushes Sri Lanka routinely set at short cover, or the slow-chokes they apply to opposition chases, are absorbed into England’s own game. “Funky captaincy” has become a buzz phrase in the Alastair Cook v Michael Clarke Ashes era, but Mahela Jayawardene is the James Brown of that movement, having so often conned batsmen out of their wickets, rather than earned them. Angelo Mathews is a different kind of captain, but by dint of inheritance, the tactical flourishes are still there. Game plans are loose to begin with, then if things go awry, quickly reimagined. It is fitting then, that Sri Lanka would have liked to be a little more like England just a few weeks back, as well. They had had a clearly laid-out pre-World Cup schedule that appeared to be a good mix of match-practice and rest, but the India tour opened up on them like an afternoon thunderstorm, and they were pelted with sixes off India bats for two weeks. Sri Lanka had departed for that tour aiming to experiment, rather than to win the series, but conceding two totals over 350, an individual 264, and suffering their worst ODI whitewash in history, will have dented a few egos. The jettisoning of Nuwan Kulasekara, who had been a pillar of the ODI attack for more than five years, is evidence that damage has been sustained. A surprise tour is not the kind of situation England will ever expect to find themselves in. There are many positives in Sri Lanka’s flexibility, but they are also always teetering a little close to chaos. That the selectors have roped in some old hands is also the kind of conservative move, more often seen in the England playbook. At 32, batsman Thilina Kandamby gets an ODI recall after three years away from the top level, while others like allrounder Jeevan Mendis have been reinstated after a long break, as well. Sri Lanka know their batting has plenty of thrill-seeking pizzazz in their three senior batsmen and Mathews, but what they need now are the steady performers: batsmen who will hit a fifty off 70 balls every other match. England may worry they play a stone-age version of the game, but Sri Lanka would probably take a Geoffrey Boycott in the second opener’s position about now. In the last four innings put together, the men batting opposite Tillakaratne Dilshan have managed eight runs. Mathews has also made stability his goal for the series. By the seventh ODI, he would ideally have liked his World Cup first XI to have emerged. The cricket that Sri Lanka and England play usually stems from disparate philosophies, they’re barely playing the same sport. But in what may be a damp series in the approach to the World Cup, each team is looking for a little of what the other has got.