The
opposition in 2001 featured a ‘who’s who?’ of island legends, from Aravinda de
Silva, Jayasuriya and Muralitharan to Chaminda Vaas and the 23 year-old batsmen
Jayawardene and Sangakkara. By 2012, only the latter pair remained, and it was
captain Mahela’s first innings 180, supported by Rangana Herath’s twelve wickets
which ensured the home team triumphed in fortress Galle and with it the
two-match rubber. Fast forward another six and a half years and Sri Lanka have
a rather threadbare look to the side. Angelo Mathews is always a good bet for a
few steady half-centuries but even the veteran Herath decided to retire before
the Kandy match leaving the attack shorn of stars.
Much
has been said about Joe Root’s promise to bring pace and purpose to England’s
Test cricket, an aggressive strategy .allied to the proven success in fifty-overs.
I can see the point. We don’t know how to grind out a day and a half against
spin so let’s just move our feet and whack a few boundaries, play to our
strengths. At Galle that seemed to becoming unstuck from the start, and it was
more traditional batting by debutant Ben Foakes and Sam Curran which rescued
the first innings, and another centurion Keaton Jennings in the second.
This
week, the scoring has been a touch quicker but the England stars have not been Ben
Stokes or Jos Buttler, although the latter did contribute. Instead it has been
Joe Root’s rapid 124, Rory Burns’ consistency at the top and Surrey colleague
Foakes who did the damage in the middle.
But
let’s face facts. The real England success story has been the spinners. So far,
only four of eighty wickets have fallen to the seamers. At Kandy, it was entirely
down to Moeen Ali, Jack Leach and Adil Rashid – with a little help from Root’s
occasional twirlers and a run-out. Incredibly, this match was the first in Test
history when 38 wickets were claimed by spinners.
I
don’t suppose Colombo will witness anything different but at last England have
the series in the bag, taking two consecutive victories abroad for the first
time in yonks. Moeen has been poor with the bat. It’s a shame if his bowling has affected his batting
because this was once a thing of beauty, but for a once part-time slow
bowler to become England’s third most successful off-break exponent of all time
is no small achievement.
For
now let’s just savour England’s new-found fame as spin kings. Jimmy who?! Of
course it’ll all change back in Blighty but at last the overseas hoodoo has
been exorcised, Joe Root reached three figures and this tight touring unit
looks quite formidable.
