All was serenity in this leafy part of Colombo. A few miles away huge crowds gathered around government buildings near England’s hotel to protest against the removal of the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, by the president, Maithripala Sirisena, which is regarded by many here as the source of a constitutional crisis.
Life pottered on as normal, though, at the Nondescripts Cricket Club – the home of some of the great Sri Lanka cricketers such as Aravinda de Silva and Kumar Sangakkara as well as Dinesh Chandimal, the current captain – with the visitors being reminded yet again that the pitches here can be unyielding and the heat sapping even on a cloudy day.
Moeen Ali spent most of the day in the field and was more concerned about the flatness of the pitch than any constitutional crisis. “It was a tough day, but a good one as well,” he said. “At least we got some bowling into our legs on a dead pitch.”
The scorecard is misleading and flattering to England despite the large total. The Board XI finished the day on 392 for nine but three of their batsmen – Kaushal Silva, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Ashan Priyanjan – retired after completing composed half‑centuries. Joe Root employed eight bowlers and three wicketkeepers. Remarkably the long list of bowlers did not contain Ben Stokes or Jack Leach; less surprisingly the wicketkeepers did not include Jonny Bairstow.
Stuart Broad opened the bowling alongside Jimmy Anderson, using his new shorter run, which is likely to conserve vital energy, but does it allow the same venom? On this sluggish surface it probably did not matter how far he ran up to the crease. The four seamers were reasonably tidy and Anderson and Chris Woakes took a wicket each.
The decision not to bowl Stokes at all suggests there are some concerns about his fitness and there must be some doubts over whether he can fulfil the workload of a third seamer in the Test team. Likewise it was surprising that England did not take this opportunity to give Leach some bowling, bearing in mind that the Joes – Root and Denly – shared almost 15 overs between them. The weather has been so unreliable here that it is impossible to guarantee more bowling in the next three days. Olly Stone was the other bowler denied an opportunity.
One chance was missed – by Denly off the bowling of Moeen – in the morning. Later on Moeen and Adil Rashid shared most of the work and three of the wickets. The assumption is that the spinners will find more encouragement in Galle. For the Board XI, Angelo Mathews hit 45 in 38 balls, taking 16 runs from the first over of the secret weapon Denly. England may prefer that Mathews’s ostracism from the national side continues, but that is unlikely to be the case.
England swapped their keepers curiously. Jos Buttler, who appeared as Butter on the scoreboard as the ball melted into his gloves (most of the time), kept in the first session. Understandably Ben Foakes took over in the second session but it was odd with time for practice so limited that Ollie Pope should be given the job in the third. How likely is he to end up with the gloves in this Test series?
