Two down with three to play seldom wins but that is where England find themselves up in the hills of Sri Lanka.
They trained in very warm conditions at a very rare venue on the eve of their fifth ODI of the tour. In Pallekele there is a modern stadium with character, fine facilities and a touch of style. So often new stadiums are architecturally barren and situated in the back of beyond. This ground may be a dozen kilometres outside Kandy but it is on the fringes of a small town and on Tuesday, at least, it was fit for play.
There had been concern recent storms have been so severe here that no cricket would be possible this week. Thankfully it is, though thunder and lightning visited Kandy on Tuesday night with some ferocity.
So England have to win to have a chance of taking the series and their representative on Tuesday,Joe Root, followed the pattern of all the recent interviewees by putting the best possible light on a gloomy situation. Given that Wednesday’s fixture, a day/night game, is in effect a knock-out match “it gives us a great opportunity to play under pressure before the World Cup”, said Root.
Like everyone else Root was craving “one complete performance”. He noted that “even when we won [at Hambantota]we were not at our best. But we still want to win the series”. The suspicion remains, however, that Sri Lanka will have to produce the cricketing equivalent of a string of double bogeys for that to happen.
Pallekele may not suit the home side quite so perfectly as Colombo where the Sri Lankans are able to rely upon their quartet of spinners to do most of the bowling. Here there is likely to be a little more encouragement for the pace bowlers although the groundsman has been hampered by the weather and the track may be damper than usual.
Whatever the characteristics of the playing surface England cannot afford to leave out James Tredwell any longer. He has missed the last two games and in both of them the England captain has been fined 20% of his match fee and the players 10% of theirs. So the fiscal argument for a Tredwell recall is incontrovertible. He bowls his overs so much more quickly than whoever replaces him.
There is also a sound cricketing argument for his return: even if the ball may not spin as much here Tredwell has a damn good idea where it’s going to land when he is bowling. Sadly the same cannot be said of Ben Stokes at the moment. So Tredwell for Stokes is an obvious change even though it is not an exciting one as solid, virtuous pragmatism replaces wayward, elusive potential.
Then there is the thorny question of who leaves the team to allow Alastair Cook back. Given that England have been stressing the “knockout” nature of this match and the fact that the series is still alive, expect Alex Hales to give way.
If the series is lost after this match then they might return to experimental mode. However, one health warning may be in order about the make-up of the side: on this tour the England hierarchy have seldom sent out the XI anticipated.
The Sri Lankans were buoyed by the announcement from the ICC that Sachitra Senanayake, banned from bowling his off-breaks and doosras because of a dodgy action, has now been cleared. They whisked him straight back in the squad for this game after Rangana Herath, the veteran left-arm spinner, had a problem with his hamstring during training.
“Senanayake is a tough character,” said their coach, Marvan Atapattu, “and it’s important to get him back. He’s so keen to come back. There’s no doubt he’ll be up for it.” In recent times there has been a purge by the ICC on bowling actions which Atapattu understands. But he noted diplomatically “people have questioned the timing. It would have been better if it had been done later or earlier rather than just as everyone was preparing for the World Cup”.
For England, in particular, those preparations are far from complete.
