Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.
Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 1:49 pmThe city of Colombo is a foreign field which provokes the imagination of England cricket followers like the Pavlovian impact of Agincourt or Waterloo on the patriots of this sceptred isle. If only we had a Shakespeare or Rupert Brooke in our days to extol the stirring memory of this victory, and its heroes, Thorpe, Gough, Croft and Giles.
That was at the SSC ground. Tomorrow England complete their present tour at the P Sara Oval, where they remain unbeaten having won each of their previous Tests at the ground under Keith Fletcher in 1982 and Andrew Strauss in 2012. Both victories presaged huge slumps in the fortunes of the national side. In 2018, Joe Root has won his first overseas series as captain. England have prevailed with barely a thrust or parry from their favoured pace bowlers. They have thrived thanks to the guile of their trio of spinners, unprecedented in living memory. Their averages are headed by the previously uncapped wicketkeeping-batter Ben Foakes, an atavistic relic of the days when the keeper's primary craft was his work with the gloves. And yet excelling with the bat.
Will these unexpected outcomes herald a change of strategy for England teams of this era, and are we witnessing the gathering of a new band of winners who will be remembered with the fondness of the heroes of 2001? Or will the tour be a curiosity of history, an unexpected but welcome diversion from the long, slow decline? The press are hastily labelling this as a new beginning for Joe Root's England. Will this renaissance even survive to the end of the tour?
That was at the SSC ground. Tomorrow England complete their present tour at the P Sara Oval, where they remain unbeaten having won each of their previous Tests at the ground under Keith Fletcher in 1982 and Andrew Strauss in 2012. Both victories presaged huge slumps in the fortunes of the national side. In 2018, Joe Root has won his first overseas series as captain. England have prevailed with barely a thrust or parry from their favoured pace bowlers. They have thrived thanks to the guile of their trio of spinners, unprecedented in living memory. Their averages are headed by the previously uncapped wicketkeeping-batter Ben Foakes, an atavistic relic of the days when the keeper's primary craft was his work with the gloves. And yet excelling with the bat.
Will these unexpected outcomes herald a change of strategy for England teams of this era, and are we witnessing the gathering of a new band of winners who will be remembered with the fondness of the heroes of 2001? Or will the tour be a curiosity of history, an unexpected but welcome diversion from the long, slow decline? The press are hastily labelling this as a new beginning for Joe Root's England. Will this renaissance even survive to the end of the tour?