bigfluffylemon wrote:Typical England pessimism. We won, so our opponents must have been crap. Now, I'm not trying to pretend this Sri Lanka line-up are world beaters, far from it. They're obviously not a great side. But they still beat Australia and South Africa at home, and Pakistan away
There is one constant in those victories, and its Herath. You could say England won at Galle with him there, but I dont think the commentators made any secret that Herath shouldnt have been playing. He'd originally planned to retire after the series, but it was clear the injuries of recent times caught up with him, and he wasnt able to play to his normal level. Without sentiment, its debatable SL would have picked him at all. He was given his send off test, but looked done throughout..... he averaged 12 vs Australia (took half the wickets in the series possible), 17 v the other two. A world class spinner with 450 odd wickets, at his best, is a different proposition to face.
SL cricket has undergone a chaotic crisis in recent times. For a team more concerned with ODI performances, they were the first team recently to be whitewashed 5-0 in three series in a year long period. They lost a series to Zimbabwe in ODIs. They nearly lost a test to Zimbabwe too, and really should off considering Dickwella made the telling 4th innings contribution, but was dropped more times than Mark Ramprakash was in his career. He was the beneficairy of the worst umpiring decision of DRS history, when he was clearly stumped out of his ground, only for the third umpire to rule it in (no one at all understood that one). They also struggled in the Windies, and it was their younger pace attack that carried them through that series.
But what happened to that pace attack that did so well that series? Well Kumara went out on the piss in the ODI series before this series, and the team threw the book at him. This is actually a massive problem, because he's one of a long list of players who have recently broke team rules on going out, which shows there is a huge discipline problem. In St Lucia, I think it was Cheemera who went out so late, the team's plane had to be held up the following day because he was still out on the razz and AWOL. Rajitha averaged 14 in the Windies with the ball, not seen him either, rumours also that he has been involved in off field AWOL nonsense. Thats basically all of SL's pace options, save for Lakmal, who played by default despite being the worst bowler in history to have taken 100 wickets in the game (worst average post 100 wickets, save for Carl Hooper and Shastri, both batters).
Gunithalaka, who was banned for the first two tests, is another SL had to do without when the series was live. Another player who decided he'd go out and get wrecked on a school night. Sadly for him, the mate he met in a hotel ended up sexually assaulting a lady, and he was arrested. Seeing an emerging theme here? He was banned for a long time, and only just came back to the team for the 3rd test.
Might ask, where is the leadership? Well, the chairman of selectors just got shopped by an ICC anti-corruption investigation into match fixing. The captain of the test team just got stripped of his role and banned for ball tampering in a game. The captain of the limited overs side just got sacked a couple of weeks ago, with the coach saying he was that bad a role model, he had let himself get unfit to the point it was debatable he could even make it through the physical needs of fielding in a 50 over game (and who now averaged under 30 since 2016 in tests, and who now no longer fit enough to bowl). We can then throw in the fact that the coach and team director were also recently banned by the ICC for acting against the spirit of the game (6 matches each), and that a key bowler has just been charged with chucking, and its not exactly a rosey picture, is it?
So, you end up with.....
Spin - The only proven long term world class option retired. The second best averaging option called for chucking. The original third spinner in line was banned for 12 months by the board for his role in another AWOL incident in the Windies (Jeffrey Vandersay). That left Perera (who averaged nearly 50 in 2017 in 11 tests!!!) alone.
Seam - They fielded one seamer on his own, the worst statistically to have ever played this much. Arguably the worst seam "attack" in history, considering the second new ball option in the squad of 11 is a part timer who is too unfit to bowl, and even at his "peak" averages 55.
Batting - One opener disgraced. Karanatarne I think recently broke his hand and has had to play T20s exclusively to get into gear. De Silva is a lower order batsman/spin option (who averages under 30 in 13 tests batting in the top 5) who is at one drop. Him, Mendis and Rosheen only have form scoring on roads (a general indication is, if more than a 1000 runs are scored in the first innings, these batters score, if not, they have probably miserably failed). Dickwella is rubbish. Mathews is finished. Chandimal is the only real approaching world class option, and he limped his way through one test, and then his series was over. K De Silva has routinely failed against virtually everyone, hes nowhere near test class (average comfortably in the 20s after 40 tests as an opener, which is pretty shocking).
Call me a pessimist, but I wouldnt brag about beating this rabble.