Test cricket is the ultimate long-con artist, and those who dismiss Sri Lanka are just plain wrong... TEST MATCH TALKING POINTS

SAM MORSHEAD takes a look at the key topics of conversation on day four of the first Test between England and Sri Lanka at Galle, as the hosts fight back to set their guests a target to chase

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The thrill of Test cricket

Yes, Test cricket. This is what we want.

The five-day game often gets a bad press, and not without reason. It is exclusionary, it can be drawn-out, it appears old-fashioned. Yet, underneath all that, when you drill down into its pure sporting qualities - the capacity for drama, the undulations of fortune, the twist in the tale - few others can come close.

What can for days appear to be a foregone conclusion can quickly shift right at the denouement, as if the game has been setting its audience up as its mark all long.

And so it came to pass in Galle’s dying light on Sunday. Sri Lanka had been playing the long con; England thought they owned the ramparts; now their bank account was being run dry.

Somehow, by hook or crook perhaps but certainly not through fluke, the home side had not only overturned a first-innings deficit of 268, but they had cast a worried gloom over an England balcony which for the best part of three days had been uncontrollably jolly.

Lahiru Thirimanne’s century - his first for nearly eight years - and Angelo Mathews’ 71 had left the tourists needing 74 for victory on a roughed-up pitch, against a spin attack which suddenly rediscovered its mojo.

And as every wicket fell - Dom Sibley leaving a straight one, 3 for 1; Zak Crawley slicing to gully, 12 for 2; Joe Root colliding with Dilruwan Perera and failing to complete a quick single, 14 for 3 - so nerves frayed that little bit more.

There might not be a single fan inside the Galle International Stadium, but the best sport translates its tension into living rooms and fastens eyes to TV.

The final session of the day did just that.

As it happens, England do appear to have done enough to prevent their pocket being picked - Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence steered the visitors away from danger and into a position where they can finish the job on Monday morning. But that does not detract from Sunday's spectacle.

For all its flaws, Test cricket remains a truly special sport.

^{Dom Sibley is bowled during England's chase}

Spin it to win it

England’s levels of success on the subcontinent this winter will be intrinsically linked to the performances of their spinners - and Sunday’s action in Galle showed that there is plenty of rustiness in that department.

Jack Leach, who has spent most of the past year playing the role of the bubble understudy, and Dom Bess, playing in his 11th Test, took more than a session to crank themselves into gear on a pitch which had been offering assistance since the first hour of the match.

During the first session, neither the left-armer nor the offspinner found rhythm. Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews were able to rotate the strike too easily, full tosses and long-hops littered the innings, and the lack of control allowed Sri Lanka’s batsmen to go about their business without much fuss.

Such was the malaise, Joe Root was compelled to turn to debutant Dan Lawrence to see through the final overs before the second new ball. Lawrence, whose action appears to have been designed by a cubist artist, has seven first-class wickets with his part-time tweakers at an average of 42.5. 

Root, meanwhile, sent down 11 overs of his own at an economy rate of 1.73, in contrast to Bess’s 3.03 and Leach’s 2.94.

Hardly ideal.

Leach and Bess can be excused a poor session after the limited amount of cricket they have been able to play over the past year, and the near total absence of red-ball action since last summer, but those excuses have a limited lifespan.

In three weeks, at least one of the two men will be lining up against an Indian batting line-up headlined by Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. If going is made easy for that quartet, England will find themselves spending an awful lot of time in the Chennai heat. One poor session may end up being match-defining.

After lunch, both Bess and Leach improved considerably, tightening their lines, mixing their speed and frustrating Sri Lanka’s batsmen.

That combination of intelligence and incisiveness flustered the hosts’ middle order, and quickly changed the complexion of the day’s play.

With Moeen Ali ruled out of the second Test following a long period of self-isolation, it is highly likely Bess and Leach will be given another outing in the second game of this series - which is due to begin on Friday. 

While it might be tempting to give one of the three reserve spinners - Mason Crane, Amar Virdi and Matt Parkinson - a chance to impress in that game, England must make sure their frontliners have as much gametime behind them before they arrive in India next month.

Going into that series cold, as parts of this match in Galle have shown, could be fatal.

^{Jack Leach celebrates one of his five second-innings wickets}

Broad’s economy

Stuart Broad went wicketless in the second innings at Galle, but in doing so his overall performance in this Test was only made even more impressive.

Broad, who had sparked England into life with three early wickets as Sri Lanka crumbled on Thursday, chugged through 17 overs across the hosts’ second innings, conceding just 14 runs.

Using a combination of tight lines, variations in speed, and well-disguised legcutters, he took complete control over the tempo of the game. Sri Lanka were offered nothing.

Broad’s economy rate - 0.82 - was the most miserly of any bowler in Test cricket with 15 overs in an innings since 2015. He just gets better, and better, and better.

Buttler’s glovework

There has barely been a moment in the past three years when Jos Buttler’s place in England’s Test side has not been up for debate, and this series is no exception.

After a summer during which his consistency with the bat in red-ball cricket cemented his role at No.6, a trip to the subcontinent meant that it was time to cast a critical eye over Buttler’s wicketkeeping.

Exacerbated by the fact Ben Foakes, widely regarded as the best keeper of England’s red-ball lot, was so effective with both bat and gloves on the hugely successful visit to Sri Lanka in 2018, Buttler will have known his performances would be under tremendous scrutiny.

It is to his huge credit, then, that the Lancashire keeper emerged through this match with an almost unblemished record.

In trying conditions - humid, warm and with the feel of ball in gloves much less frequent than back home - Buttler maintained his composure and concentration, and proved a reliable pair of hands behind the stumps.

His catches to dismiss Lahiru Thirimanne off Sam Curran (a tumbling catch to his right off the inside edge), and Kusal Mendis off Jack Leach (an excellent reflex take on the rise) were top-class, and a first Test stumping to be rid of Dilruwan Perera showed excellent awareness.

There was one error of note - a missed stumping of Angelo Mathews off Dom Bess - but in an environment which is as demanding of overseas keepers as anywhere in the world, this was an accomplished display.

^{England's players wait for a decision}

Do not dismiss Sri Lanka

Praise of Joe Root’s double hundred or England’s efficiency with the ball in the first innings in Galle was met with scorn in some places earlier this week.

“It’s only Sri Lanka,” the detractors said. “It only matters if they do it next winter”. 

This is grossly unfair on England’s hosts: a full member nation who might not be at the peak of their powers but, as their performance with the bat on days three and four reiterated, are hardly a gimme. 

The Sri Lankans - who, let’s not forget, are missing their captain and standout batsman Dimuth Karunaratne, as well as two frontline seamers in Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Kumara, and the top-order runs of Oshada Fernando - did not just hold their own, they owned these periods of the game.

Proving that the capitulation of the first innings was a result of rash decision-making rather than innate technical flaws or simply “not being good enough”, they turned a deficit of 268 into a lead of 73 on a pitch that has offered something to the spinners throughout.

And then they gave England an abrupt shock in the chase.

If ever an example was needed of the true ability of this group of players, and clarity on whether or not they have the necessary mindset for this form of the game, this was it.

So, no, it is not acceptable to dismiss the achievements of England in this match - their first competitive red-ball cricket in five months, in humid and hot conditions - as inconsequential, because that would be to dismiss Sri Lanka as irrelevant. And that, as their performance from day two onwards in this Test showed, is palpable nonsense.

All images courtesy of Sri Lanka Cricket