Assured Ben Foakes shuns 'risky' approach to set up England

It took a couple of new boys to show the old ones how to do it.

After a morning session in which England's batsmen had squandered first use of a surface on which run-scoring is likely to become harder, it took Ben Foakes - on debut - and Sam Curran - aged 20 - to provide the calm heads and common sense required to drag England back into this contest.

Foakes, in particular, showed his top-order colleagues how it should be done with an innings that spoke of wonderful composure and assurance. While those above him fell attempting to force the pace of the game, Foakes was content to bide his time and wait for the loose ball. So while three of the top four had strikes rates of 75 or more, Foakes was happy to take 40 balls to score his first seven runs. And while England's top order thrashed 10 fours in the game's first 10 overs, Foakes was happy to register just six in his 68 overs at the crease.

All tour, England have spoken of the need to play with "courage" and take "risks". But as Joe Root skipped down the pitch and yorked himself, Keaton Jennings missed a cut that was far too close to him and Ben Stokes was bowled round his legs attempting a delicate lap-sweep, it was hard to wish there wasn't just a little more talk of "patience" and "discipline" and rather less of the bravado.

For we are hardly in uncharted territory here. This England team has lived and, very often, died by the sword in recent years. And, despite the mountain of evidence that suggests it is a ploy that will meet with limited success at Test level, they show little sign of changing.

This is, after all, the team that has lost ten wickets in a session three times in the last two years (something that never happened between 1936 and 2016) and here saw four of their top five bowled in the first-innings of a Test for the first time this century. They attacked 30% of the deliveries they faced before lunch - a record, according to CricViz, for England in Tests in Asia since such data started being compiled in 2006 - with Root responding to his team's predicament (they were two down after 75 minutes) by advancing and attempting to hit Rangana Herath over the top. Courageous? Maybe. Sensible? Not really.

In Foakes we saw the antidote. He played straight, he played each delivery on its merits and he didn't go searching for the 'four' ball. He trusted his defence - you wonder if some of those top-order colleagues do so - and talked, instead of "courage," of "grinding" and "nurdling". He fought off a sustained attack of cramp towards stumps and resumes, on day two, within 13 runs of becoming just the second England wicketkeeper to make a century on Test debut. Matt Prior was the other.

Is it relevant that Foakes was on debut? You would hope not. But you do wonder if all the talk of "courage" and "risk" and "aggression" seeps into the mindset of this squad over time and through exposure. Foakes is untainted by such complications - he actually declined the offer of a Lions tour this winter in the belief that an extended break would do him more good; he had just returned from a "lads' trip" to Lisbon when he was called-up - and played good, old-fashioned cricket without the testosterone that seems to govern so much of England's batting in all formats.

That's not the say the England system hasn't contributed to Foakes' success. He has been part of the "pathway" for a decade and this is, in one way or another, his sixth trip to Sri Lanka to play cricket, including various Lions tours and a placement with Colts, a club in Colombo. Trevor Bayliss has wanted him involved - here, in particular - for some time and he came into the match with a first-class average of 40.64. This is not, despite Foakes' late call-up, a complete shock.

"It definitely helped me," he said of his experience in Sri Lanka. "I got to learn a little bit about Dilruwan Perera and Akila Dananjaya [who also played for Colts]. And the thing you can't really prepare for is the heat, unless you've done it. I think playing in this sort of heat a few times really helped."

Bruce French deserves praise, too. While there is limited evidence of much improvement among batsmen and bowlers in the England environment, the improvement in keepers - think of Prior or Jonny Bairstow - is marked. French, England's long-term wicketkeeping coach, struggled to hold back the tears when he awarded Foakes his Test cap and deserves recognition for his part in his development.

Foakes has though, given the England management quite a headache ahead of the Kandy Test. With Bairstow expected to be fit to play, they will be forced to make a tricky selection. Foakes, like Bairstow and Jos Buttler and Stokes and Moeen Ali, all look at their best in the middle-order, but something - or somebody - really has to give.

That somebody here was, as ever, Moeen. Having been told he definitely wouldn't be batting at No. 3 little more than a week ago, he came into this game after one warm-up innings when he batted at No. 7. There's no defending his failure to keep out a pretty regulation delivery that was angled in from around the stumps, but England sure do mess him around.

Bayliss said, earlier in the week, that both Moeen and Stokes were in the side for their batting, with their bowling considered a bonus. But Moeen now averages 31.87 with the bat in Test cricket and Stokes 33.56: they are not stats that would be considered sufficient for specialist batsmen.

Foakes defended England's approach after play. Arguing that, in the first session, the ball gripped on a slightly tacky surface, he suggested that, had they allowed the bowlers to settle into a length, they could have been rendered both strokeless and defenceless.

"In that first session the amount the ball stuck and turned, if we hadn't been aggressive, we could have been 30 for four or five." Foakes said. "The guys went about it really well. The way Keaton Jennings played especially, taking the game to them and throwing them off their lengths, worked quite well."

Maybe. But England were again bailed out by the depth of their batting. Curran, patient between poor balls but merciless when they arrived, again contributed well but will be disappointed with the attempted heave that ended his innings. Adil Rashid also swung merrily for a while but, as a No. 9, has more licence to do so. The top-order have to take more responsibility. Test batting is about more than aggression. It has to encompass patience and restraint, too.