England’s beleaguered ODI squad fly to Sri Lanka soon for seven World Cup warm up games against Sri Lanka. And if we’re looking for a winter ‘warm up’ the ECB have found the perfect place: it’s currently pushing 30 degrees in Colombo. It sure beats the brass monkeys of bonfire night in the UK.
So what can we expect from the tour? The short answer is ‘runs’ – lots of them – and mostly from Sri Lanka’s batsmen. With Broad and now Anderson injured, our seam attack looks about as threatening as a three-year old girl wrapped up in Winnie the Pooh jumper.
No wonder the world and his rottweiler expects us to suffer a heavy series defeat. Journalists aren’t confident and Sri Lanka are a symmetrical 6-1 with Betfair to thrash us six games to one. Are Finn, Jordan, Woakes, Stokes and Gurney really the best we’ve got?
Although people might argue that spin is the staple diet of Sri Lankan cricket – and spin will be important – seam bowling shouldn’t be overlooked. The last time there was an international limited overs tournament in the subcontinent, the pitches were spicier than expected. Dust bowls were not ubiquitous.
Having said that, England aren’t particularly blessed in either pace or spin bowling. Rumour has it that Anderson might be replaced by Rashid, Parry or Samit Patel. They’re hardly Warne or Murali are they. They’re not even Robert Croft to be honest.
As only delirious optimists (if such a thing exists in England’s supporter base) expect us to restrict Sri Lanka to paltry totals, the most interesting aspect of this tour is whether our batsmen can establish themselves:
Will Hales finally look at home in fifty over cricket? Will James Taylor finally stand on the shoulders of giants (which might be the only way he’ll see any of the action) and emulate the other midgets who have revolutionised cricket: Tendulkar, Gus Logie, the wee man from Jackass etc.
More importantly will Cook and Morgan return to form? This is absolutely essential. Morgan finally scored some runs in the T20 in September, but his recent ODI form has been patchy.
Meanwhile, everyone’s still waiting with bated breath for Cook to make double figures for the first time in what seems like a decade. What’s more, can he do it in less than one hundred balls?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that our skipper, the surrogate son of Paul Downton and Derek Pringle, will actually have a successful tour with the bat. Cook’s technique against pace is as dodgy as a nine bob note, but he’s a good player of spin.
If Cook can negotiate the early overs – which should be easier on Sri Lanka’s relatively benign surfaces – then he might drop anchor and accumulate some decent scores.
This will take a little bit of pressure off the skipper and enable Downton and Giles Clarke to wander the streets freely for a short period … before the World Cup begins, Cook’s form disintegrates again, and the chances of them being lynched in public soars exponentially.
As for Sri Lanka, it remains to be seen what kind of team they’ll put out. Lasith Malinga is in a metaphorical sling (oh the irony) after undergoing ankle surgery. Meanwhile, Chandimal, Thirimanne and Herath were all left out of the first three games of the Lankan’s swiftly arranged tour of India.
The Lankans must also be tempted to rest the likes of Jayawardene and Sangakkara at some point. Sri Lanka should have enough in their locker to send England packing whoever they pick.
However, after the Jos Buttler mankading incident last summer, the war of words with Cook and the subsequent banning of Senanayake for chucking, bad blood exists between the two sides.
Don’t be surprised if Sri Lanka simply pick their best team, thump us, and be done with it.
James Morgan
It’s funny how you take them apart most of the time, with good reason, yet look forward to wishing them well in Sri Lanka – how does that happen? I’m not interested in watching this England set up anywhere
After being a passionate England supporter for 40 years, it’s extremely difficult to not care how well we do in Sri Lanka.
But somehow, Clarke, Downton, Cook, Whitaker (sp?), Giles, Flower, Agnew, Pringle, Simon Hughes, Selvey and others have, together, left me not caring either.
I’m pretty uninterested but if James Taylor goes well, I want to watch it, Hales too, the rest – no
Dreadful thing to say but I hope we are given a darned good thrashing if only for the Cook interview after each loss……..
It’s interesting that both Broad and Anderson are out injured. I can’t help thinking this is partly because they have been Bowled into the ground by Cook. Mainly because at one point they were the only bowlers he trusted. Cook was so reluctant to bowl Moeen Ali at the beginning of the summer that England where relying on 2 bowlers.
If it carries on like this for the next 12 months, with all the cricket there is to play these two may be ready for retirement.
Prepare for World Cup in Australia and New Zealand? Play seven ODIs in Sri Lanka!
Nope, still can’t make sense of it.
That’s because you’re outside cricket.
And now for something completely different….Apparently John Lewis Christmas advert is about a penguin – I thought it would have been about a sheep…..
There are about 4 or 5 players I want to go really well, one or two that I want to crash and burn and the rest I am neutral on. The team as a whole I want to lose in a manner that will make a sea change inevitable. Unfortunately with the ECB this probably means a 7-0 whitewash by 100+ runs a match. Even then they will probably just drop Taylor and Hales and retain Cook…