Time for change after England capsize

It cannot and it should not go on like this. Of course, continuity is a significant factor in honing a winning team but the idea that it is acceptable to say that a losing team are still the best team has a distinct lack of currency. If England fail to win next week and thus lose the series they will lose their No 1 status. The men who took them there have taken them away from there much more quickly.

He [Herath] is not a prodigious spinner of the ball; nor does he extract extravagant bounce. But he is accurate, wily and experienced – his first Test was in Galle against Australia thirteen years ago. It almost goes without saying now that he is easily underestimated – no mystery, no pace so no place in the modern game, where the bully-boy big bats take charge. Well, that was not the case in Galle.

Herath may lack a few physical attributes; he cannot fizz the ball down but he has one critical virtue: he is clever. He seldom delivers the ball from the same place, seldom at the same pace. The quicker one to Samit Patel in the first innings was deliciously disguised. He toys with the batsmen on a surface that gives him help, but he never frightens them. All innocence he invites aggression.

Most batsmen fear ‘dying in the hole’ on turning pitches; in other words, tamely proffering a catch to one of the many eager close catchers gathered around the bat. Trott has no such fear. A long forward stride and soft hands see to that. Even when there were two huge consecutive appeals for catches from the bowling of the off-spinner Suraj Randiv in the day’s third over, he was not perturbed. By contrast, the watching Kevin Pietersen was perturbed. In that very same over, Pietersen decided that he had to leave that hole swiftly and go down the pitch. Deceived by Randiv’s dip, he could only chip to short mid wicket.