Mendis grateful for English league experience

There was no long apprenticeship at the fringes of the Test side for Kusal Mendis. There were no tours with the A team, or leadership positions in his club side. But such opportunities as have been thrown his way have been seized, and now, he has his first Test fifty. In five innings in England so far - including in the two warm-up matches - Mendis has hit three half-centuries. None of his team-mates have managed more than one.

It is his first trip to England with a Sri Lanka outfit, but not his first experience of cricket in the country. In 2014, when he was fresh out of school, he played for Southgate in the Middlesex leagues. That experience has done him good, Mendis said.

"I got a lot of good experience from coming here for four months, partly because I was on my own," he said. "I learned a lot about how to adjust to conditions and how to deal with that initial disappointment of not knowing them very well. And also about how to play when it's cold. I got to do that alone, and got a lot of useful experience from that."

Having returned from his English stint, Mendis had his first taste of first-class cricket in 2015. But it was while leading a Sri Lanka Development XI in the Moin-ud-Dowlah three-day tournament in Hyderabad that he threw himself into Test contention with scores of 156, 52 and 47 there, and though he hasn't yet cemented his place in the top side, has three scores of more than 40 in his last five Test innings, all of which have been played outside Asia.

He has experienced an "immense" leap in the quality of opponents since coming to the top side, he said. But there has been helpful advice in withstanding good bowling, and good sledging, along the way. At Headingley, James Anderson tested him with both.

"No one tried to change my technique much," Mendis said. "They just asked me to play as I was. Mentally there were a few changes. The advice was mainly about mentally adjusting. They told me about being patient at this level, because it's five-day cricket. That was something they stressed. You get far fewer loose balls at this level. If there are four men in the attack, all of them are very good, and it's a challenge to score runs.

"They also told me about how to respond when bowlers talked to me. If we go to argue with them, we lose our concentration. It's important to focus on the game."

He is attempting to fill large shoes at present, taking up the No. 3 spot that Kumar Sangakkara had held for the decade. Mendis is not under pressure to emulate Sangakkara's runs just yet, but he does feel the position is a good fit for his game.

"It's a big responsibility. I've played there before for my club, and I've been thinking about what is possible for me and what needs to be done there. I have to contribute runs to stay in that position and the team. I try to bat the same way every day, with allowances for the pitch. Some wickets you can score quickly and others you can't."

The 53 at Headingley had boosted his confidence, but like his team-mates, he must learn quickly from his flaws as well.  "Everyone said it was a good innings. They also gave me some advice on the weaknesses - especially about foot movement. We're very disappointed as a side at how the match turned out, but we're hopeful the next game will be much better."