Andy Pakes looks at the emergence of Australia's James Pattinson and compares him to his England-capped brother Darren.
Sam Holloway looks at why test match cricket is not going to become extinct just yet
Manraj Bahra looks at the subtle differences between the forms of cricket and how teams shouldn't look to pick the same players in all forms.
Sports Editor James Tompkinson looks at the continuing problem of corruption within cricket as the cases of three Pakistani cricketers accused of spot fixing comes to an end
Nobody really expected England to lose to a Sri Lanka side very much in transition now that they have lost Muttiah Muralitharan to retirement, but the tourists did show resilience at times within the series, proving that they are not about to turn into another walkover test match team and follow in the footsteps of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. However, the mediocre Sri Lankan bowling attack didn’t contain enough firepower to trouble the England top order and every batsmen apart from skipper Andrew Strauss gained valuable time in the middle at some point during this series, which bodes well for later in the summer when the Indians arrive.
The media seem to be running out of superlatives to describe Alastair Cook’s form at the moment, and such is the dominance of the 26 year old England opener over any bowler he seems to face that there was a certain disappointment when he edged a ball from Dilhara Fernando and was caught at second slip for just 55 runs. It has become the norm that Cook goes out and makes hundreds, his average for the series was 97.5, and England’s new run machine is in the form of his life heading into one of the most important series in England’s recent history against India later in the summer.
Another stand out performer for England in this series has been Chris Tremlett. Tremlett’s reputation continues to grow after he was reinstated into the England team during last winter’s Ashes series, and his haul of 6-48 in the Sri Lankan first innings in the third test match proved to be the culmination of a very successful series for the England fast bowler. The key to Tremlett’s success is the length that he bowls. There is a big temptation for a tall fast bowler to bang the ball in short and try and intimidate batsmen, but Tremlett tends to bowl much fuller and get the ball to bounce up off that full length, making it very hard for batsmen to work out whether to play off the front foot or the back foot. This results in batsmen getting caught on the crease and often playing away from their bodies, meaning they edge the ball to the slips rather than playing solid defensive shots.
England will need the likes of Cook and Tremlett to be at their very best against India later on in the summer, because they will provide a much sterner test than the Sri Lankans did. However, England are creating a brand of cricket at the moment which has created a winning formula for the team over the last couple of years. If England stick to what they know and play the way they did against Australia and Sri Lanka then they stand a very good chance of beating the Indians as well.
You must log in to submit a comment.
