England's escape at Galle gives them the momentum

It may have been guarding Sri Lanka's southern coastline for the best part of 400 years, but the old Dutch fort at Galle can rarely have witnessed a more magnificent backs-to-the-ramparts effort than England's tailenders produced to save last week's first Test. From a position of apparent hopelessness at lunch on the final day, England rallied sufficiently to cling to their positions until nightfall, before being airlifted to Kandy on Sunday in a military helicopter, with their spirits at a higher ebb than at any other stage this winter.

It was a match in which an English defeat ought to have been a formality, especially after losing the toss at Muttiah Muralitharan's most prolific hunting-ground. Instead, they held out, and for all the brave words being uttered publicly by the Sri Lankan players and officials, their failure to break through England's defences has been a shattering disappointment. On a local radio phone-in on Sunday afternoon, the presenter referred bleakly to "Sri Lanka's defeat" on more than half-a-dozen occasions, and not one single caller felt the need to correct him.

By escaping with a draw, England are already in a stronger position in this series than they were two years ago, when Kandy was the venue for one of the most explosive Test encounters in recent years. England eventually won a nailbiter by just three wickets, although the result said nothing of the main incidents of the match - dodgy umpiring that brought even the mild-mannered Sanath Jaysuriya to the brink of apoplexy, a finger-jabbing face-off between Kumar Sangakkara and the rarely ruffled Mike Atherton, and most crucially of all for England, a hard-fought (if fortunate) century by Nasser Hussain, which brought an end to the most desperate run of form of his career.

Two years on, and Hussain is once again at the centre of England's thoughts for the match which starts tomorrow (0430 GMT). He withdrew on the morning of the first Test after succumbing to flu-like symptoms, but his return to the side was guaranteed as soon as he had come through a tough two-hour net session on Monday afternoon. "He's a fighter and he has declared himself fit, so Nasser will play and bat at No. 4," said Michael Vaughan. It will be Hussain's 90th Test - 89 more than the man who stood in for him at Galle. But Paul Collingwood capped his debut with a crucial second-innings 35, and may yet retain his place if England opt to go into the Kandy Test with six specialist batsmen.

That decision will depend on the management's assessment of the pitch. "We might go in with six batters," admitted Vaughan, "But we also have to try to get 20 wickets out there as well. We will just try to work out over the next few days what we think the best formula is." At the centre of England's considerations will be Andrew Flintoff, whose hit-the-deck bowling style has traditionally made more impression at Kandy than the approach favoured by, say, James Anderson, who is back in the reckoning after twisting his ankle before the first Test.

Despite England's eagerness not to overburden Flintoff, he was nonetheless the most hard-worked of their seamers at Galle, largely because of the measure of control he was able to exert from his high-kicking length. Flintoff sent down 40 overs in the match - almost twice as many as Richard Johnson - and with two more Tests in the next fortnight, this is bound to be a concern.

Ironically, one of the best ways of limiting Flintoff's workload would be to promote him to the new ball in place of Johnson, and hand the donkey work to the third spinner, Robert Croft. This option was considered but ignored at Galle, and is even less likely to be taken up at Kandy, for the simple reason that Johnson and Matthew Hoggard have overs under their belts and deserve another chance to cement their partnership. But Vaughan expects plenty of assistance for the spinners at Kandy's Asgiriya Stadium. "This pitch is damper than last time," he remarked. "It will probably dry out with a couple of days' sunshine, and be a bit slower than last time and help the spinners more."

For a time on Sunday afternoon, Croft looked as though he might be vying for one of two spinning slots. Ashley Giles, the man who produced the most famous asterisk in Galle since Goscinny and Uderzo, was struggling with a throat infection and rated a doubt for Kandy. But he has since been fed some magic potion, and will resume his partnership with Gareth Batty. Giles missed Monday's net session, but Vaughan termed his absence as "optional resting".

Sri Lanka's permutations are equally numerous. Although they have announced an unchanged squad for this second Test, it would be a surprise if they entered the match with the same ill-balanced line-up they settled for at Galle. By anyone's standards, the selection of five spinners was excessive, and it seems likely that one of these, Kumar Dharmasena, will make way for an extra batsman. The two men in contention are Tillekaratne Dilshan and Michael Vandort, who would open the innings if selected. Given the importance of the match, however, Sri Lanka are more likely to go with Dilshan and retain their tried-and-tested opening partnership of Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu.

One further change is possible in the bowling department, with Dilhara Fernando fit and ready to resume the new-ball duties at the expense of his namesake Dinusha, who recovered from an ineffectual first innings to bowl a fearsome spell on the final morning at Galle. Muttiah Muralitharan caused a ripple or two when he appeared with his shoulder strapped in ice and failed to bowl during Tuesday's nets session, but he was rated as a 100% starter by Sri Lanka's coach, John Dyson.

"Our morale is very good," said Dyson. "On this tour, we gave England a whacking in Dambulla in the one-dayer, and we were the only team that looked like winning at Galle."

All the more galling, then, that they are not 1-0 up with two to play.

Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Tillekaratne Dilshan, 6 Hashan Tillakaratne (capt), 7 Thilan Samaraweera, 8 Kumar Dharmasena, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

England (probable) 1 Michael Vaughan (capt), 2 Marcus Trescothick, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain, 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Gareth Batty, 9 Ashley Giles, 10 Richard Johnson, 11 Matthew Hoggard.