It seldom rains in Sri Lanka. It usually pours and just as the England players turned up for practice at this surreal stadium plonked in the middle of the jungle the heavens opened once again with some venom.
The locals were none too surprised. It does rain a lot down here at this time of year. The dual carriageway to the Mahinda Rajapaksa stadium, which is always peculiarly deserted except for stray dogs, pairs of peacocks and the odd iguana, was transformed into a river in spate as the players made their long trek back to their hotel under cover of darkness.
It must have been a forlorn journey. At times like this touring can be a challenge. England are two down, playing badly and a long way from home – even the Sri Lankans are a long way from home here – and it is bucketing down.
Moreover the cliche that “you are only as good as your last game” has much validity as England were awful in theirs – in Colombo on Saturday. Amid the storm it seemed as if memories of their last game were going to stay with the team longer than desired since there were doubts whether Wednesday’s fixture at this preposterous venue miles from anywhere would go ahead (spectators are apparently brought in by bus ; it must be hoped such charity extends to the return journey).
Steven Finn was invited to look ahead to the game, a role that may be regarded as something of a poisoned chalice within the England camp when things are not going according to plan and one which might be better suited to more senior figures in the party in times of stress. Nonetheless Finn did his duty well. He speaks coherently and sensitively and with an occasional penchant for understatement.
“To lose in the manner we did in the last game was far from ideal,” he said. No one argued with that. “We didn’t adapt to things as well as we should have done in that match but we’re hoping to address that in this game.”
Here Finn was echoing what Ravi Bopara said on Sunday and James Tredwell on Monday about England’s inability to think on their feet, to assess the conditions and proceed accordingly.
Clearly they have talked about this at some length since Saturday. The disturbing thing about this is that the men, who failed to think on their feet in Colombo were those who should have been most capable of doing so, namely two of the old hands, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell. It was as if they had been infected by all the talk of dynamism at the top of the order.
A one-day international line-up requires a balance of pragmatists and blasters. In this squad Cook and Bell should be the pragmatists, while Moeen Ali, Alex Hales – if he can get a game – and Jos Buttler are expected to blast away. In Colombo, on a dodgy sluggish track, Cook and Bell looked as if they were trying to do their Moeen/Hales impersonations.
Finn was soon asked the statutory question about the captain and replied with the statutory expression of confidence in him. Meanwhile his bowling prompted a faint, though genuine glimmer of light in a gloomy match last weekend.
“I felt like I bowled well in the last game,” he said. “Tillakaratne Dilshan hit some nice shots and at the end we had to try to force something when Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara were batting. I feel happy with my rhythm and where my bowling is.”
He bowled several short balls at Dilshan, which were a source of more comment than usual after the death of Phillip Hughes.
Finn, who is the least bellicose of fast men, spoke with common sense about the fast bowler’s current lot. “I don’t think the game needs to change. I think we have to accept that it was a great tragedy and an accident.” As for the bouncers: “You bowl a bouncer to keep a batsman on his toes and it is a way to get him out.”
There was still time, in Finn’s opinion, for England to make the necessary improvements before the World Cup. “If you put it all together we’ve got 10 games, which is 1,000 overs of cricket to play; so we’ve got time to get ready.”
It felt as if those figures might have to be amended to nine games and 900 overs as the rain cascaded down on Tuesday night, though there is a reserve day allocated to this match. And when the sun comes out it is very hot.
But it may be that Jayawardene was drawing on his long experience of his home country when he became unavailable for this fixture. This might be a long, drawn-out affair and a good game to miss. Jayawardene will probably be replaced in the Sri Lankan middle order by Thilina Kandamby, a 32-year-old left-hander who has played 38 ODIs since his debut 10 years ago. Jayawardene’s absence makes a Sri Lankan victory less likely. Even so the home side remain strong favourites.
