Following an absolutely thrilling 3rd Test at Sydney, everyone’s attentions now turn to Thursday and the start of the England vs Sri Lanka test series in Galle.
We will come back to the Sydney Test later on, but first we’re going to look ahead at England’s test series. Should you want a longer look at our thoughts on the England squad selection (Bairstow, Who Opens etc.) then please take a look at our previous article on it.
Both tests of this series will take place at Galle, and England go into the game having had just one day’s worth of a practice match at a different venue; so there is the possibility that they come into this series a little undercooked. However, they will be favourites for this series due to their strong squad; even with Stokes, Archer and Burns missing.
Due to Covid they are also now going to be without Moeen Ali who tested positive on arrival in Sri Lanka. There has been talk that England may bring in another spinner to the squad from the reserves over the last 24 hours. They have Matt Parkinson, Amar Virdi and Mason Crane as the options, and you would expect them to be promoted up in that order; although all would have a good chance of being brought in. This will of course depend on the pitch and what England make of the conditions, but we’re going to guess that they will choose against adding the extra spinner in the end and go with 2 spinners plus Root’s part-time off spin.
Chris Woakes is another who is unlikely to feature it seems from Chris Silverwood’s comments yesterday. Woakes was considered a close contact of Moeen’s having share an ECB a taxi to the airport from Birmingham, thus he had to also isolate for an extended period. Woakes left isolation at the weekend and will have trained with the side for the first time on Monday, and it seems (with rotation already planned) that he may be saved for the second test. Therefore we’re expecting to see Sam Curran playing as the all-rounder at 7 in the first test.
Silverwood also commented on the talent of Dan Lawrence and spoke of how he was ready for his test debut and to score test match runs, and so it seems very likely that he will make his debut and receive cap 696 on Thursday. We’re really excited to see Lawrence play as his stats and talent mean that he should have everything required to be a great red-ball batsman; and his technique with his amazing wrist flailing is brilliant to watch.
Variation of bowling attack has also been mentioned in recent days regarding the England team, and so it is expected that only one of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad will feature in each test. Jimmy was the pick of the bowlers in the practice day, with the wickets of Buttler and Bairstow, and so you would guess that he may get the nod for the first test.
During the practice match it was also great to see Zak Crawley and especially Joe Root looking in great form. Ollie Pope also batted and looked good but he is still ruled out from this series as he continues his rehab on his shoulder injury.
Based on the above, we’re predicting England’s line-up to be:
1.) Sibley
2.) Crawley
3.) Bairstow
4.) Root (C)
5.) Lawrence
6.) Buttler (WK)
7.) S.Curran
8.) Bess
9.) Wood
10.) Leach
11.) Anderson
Sri Lanka come into the series after a 2-0 drubbing in South Africa just a week or so ago. This series contained a lot of injuries to their bowling attack though and so the results and margins of victory we’re a little false and harsh on Micky Arthur’s side. A number of the key spinners from the last series vs England, such as Herath, have now retired and Sri Lanka’s seam options are now much stronger; possibly stronger than their spin options depending on injuries.
There’s still a fair few names that English fans will recognise within their squad; including Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews and the fantastically named Dickwella. But there is also some new bowling talent to keep an eye out for, such as: pacemen Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando, left arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
England may start slowly against Sri Lanka, as has been commonplace in recent tours, but the injuries and form of Sri Lanka mean that we are still going to back England to get the victory in the first test, and to then repeat the feat in the second test; although with a much-changed bowling line-up we suspect.
Here are our full predictions:
Series Result - 2-0 to England
Player of the Series - Joe Root
Top Run-Scorer - Joe Root
Top Wicket-Taker - Jack Leach
One to Watch for Eng - Dan Lawrence
Sri Lankan Top Run-Scorer - Kusal Perera
Sri Lankan Top Wicket-Taker - Wanindu Hasaranga
One to Watch for SL - Wanindu Hasaranga
Let us know what your thoughts and predictions are ahead of this series!
We couldn’t finish today’s article without a look back at an eventful Third Test in Sydney between Australia and India.
The now full-strength Australia (well minus one of David Warner’s groins) went into the final day against a battered and bruised India requiring 8 wickets to win (possibly only 7 with Jadeja one of the injured players looking like he may not bat more than an over or two.) India still needed another 300+ runs for victory, and so all 4 results were still possible.
However it seemed an Aussie win was the most likely, with India having feint hopes of batting the day and salvaging a draw. And salvage a draw is what they did! It was even comfortable in the end, as they finished 5 wickets down thanks to heroics from Pujara, Pant, Ashwin and Vihari.
It was a fantastic result for India, and also 5-day test cricket, and means that the series goes to Brisbane with both teams looking for a series win!
For Australia it was another bad, and some would say dark, day. Not only did they fail to claim the victory, but the test match was marred on days 2-4 by racial abuse from the crowd towards Siraj in particular. This has been covered in detail by many others and we voiced our views on the Cricket Badger podcast on Sunday, but we’d like to reiterate how wrong this was and how important it is that we all actively stamp out racism in our game.
Then Day 5 saw more unsavoury scenes, but this time on the pitch. Steve Smith was spotted deliberately roughing up the crease to remove Pant’s guard, and then the skipper Tim Paine was heard chirping to Ravi Ashwin. Smith’s antics were childish and unsportsmanlike, but not a massive issue. Although you have to question why on earth you would do that when you are surrounded by cameras and with his past record? With Paine, the chirping started light-hearted but soon turned sour, with Paine calling Ashwin a ‘dickhead’. This incident, that already does not look good following the crowd’s abuse of Indian players, is on top of Paine having already been reprimanded for dissent earlier in the test.
Neither of today’s incidents were necessarily major, but they brought the memories of Cape Town and the ‘Old Australia’ back to the forefront. ‘Elite Honesty’ and the ‘New Australia’ had left the field and old habits of being ‘obsessed with winning at all costs’ returned. We are sure Justin Langer and the Australian public will be just as bothered by that as the failure to win.
Everything about Day 5 has heaped pressure onto Paine, who was lauded after his batting in the first test. To add to his woes, he also dropped 3 catches in India’s innings, including a regulation catch late on Day 5. For many, he is not the best wicketkeeper or wicketkeeper-batsman that Australia could pick (despite his average having been good recently thanks to his first test exploits) and his record as a captain is not a standout one. With a 50% win rate in tests following this match, it puts him as their worst test skipper since the 90’s. His white ball captaincy hasn’t been brilliant either; although his tenure has been under difficult circumstances.
The difficult circumstances and the portrayal of him as the ‘Mr Nice Guy’ captain (who is meant to be changing Australian cricket for the better) has brought him some extra breathing room previously, but today his standards slipped away and with it so did the breathing room. Brisbane is now of huge importance for him and a loss and poor performance could signal the beginning of the end for his reign. Fortunately for him, Jasprit Bumrah has also been ruled out through injury today; although should they somehow lose in Brisbane then that would just confound Paine’s problems!
What did you make of the 3rd Test in Sydney? And of Smith and Paine? Let us know!
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