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Nasser Hussain and Kumar Sangakkara were less opposed to Sri Lanka battery performance in Galle
Nasser Hussain and Kumar Sangakkara were less opposed to Sri Lanka battery performance in Galle
Abysmal, awful, farcical.
After Sri Lanka were knocked out for 135 before tea on the first day of the first Test against England – the lowest number ever for a side batting first in a Test match in Galle – the pundits did not hold back Sky Sports Cricket.
A little effort was made for the spinners but not many bats claimed that the only action they took was the pitch or even the quality of the bowling. Instead, it was left to head coach Mickey Arthur to avoid a combination of poor photo selection and failure from the mistakes of others.
“I think abysmal is going to be kind – it was completely rusty,” Nasser Hussain said. “You think of some of the greats who got Sri Lanka – what do they have to look at batting performance like that? It was farcical.
“I would like to know how many of those Sri Lankan bats walked into the dressing room and thought ‘I got out to proper delivery’, there were none. B it was a joke before last.
“People were diving in, people were turning back – that was the 46 most farcical overs cricket test I have ever seen in my life and if Sri Lanka lose this game it is because of so disgusting as they have been. “
Lahiru Thirimanne was the first to go when Sri Lanka fell to 135 all out on the first day
With 12,400 test runs and an average of 57.40, Kumar Sangakkara is one of those greats in Sri Lankan and was not as big as what the conventional crop offered.
“It was a very, very bad performance,” he said. “In any hotel, one or two bats get out in a very soft, weightless way, perhaps playing something called a silly bullet.
“But with so many making that mistake over and over again through important first innings on the first day of a Test game on a very good pitch, it is a disappointment for us.
“The entire Sri Lankan batting line did not appear to be ready or ready for test cricket as they showed us on the field today.
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“It is not true that any batsman was bothered by the leg, but perhaps Dilruwan Perera, who received a fine dipping delivery put forward by [Dom] Bess, the rest had no control over their movements or manner.
“I talked earlier about controlling those hands, the speed of those hands and none of them had any control. Then, of course, you had terrible decisions in difficult situations to ask for calm, smart, cool thinking.
“Overall, in terms of ingenuity, in terms of preparation, in terms of reading situations and decision-making, Sri Lanka was completely poor.”
Mike Atherton was similar to my approach in Sri Lanka with the bat and, although he recognizes a number of mitigating factors, he believes they gave wickets to English bowlers. .
“I think this is some of the worst test game batting I’ve ever seen,” the former England captain said. “Test cricket is a game of skill, vision, ability and thinking and not much of that came from Sri Lanka.
Dom Bess benefited from some questionable bats for Sri Lanka as he conceded his second five-for test
“There may be some excuses for lack of use, lack of game time, lack of cricket in general in this Covid era. This is Sri Lanka ‘s first home series since the pandemic hit but then the apologies must stop .
“You may lack form and confidence but you won’t lose your ability to think through a game if you haven’t played so much cricket.
“It’s good for Dom Bess to have five but he’ll never get one cheaper than that because he didn’t really bowl so well, Jack Leach was much better of the two spinners , and I thought Stuart Broad moved beautifully. “
An unannounced alliance of 110 between Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow ensured that England did not suffer the same race as their guests slipped to 17-2, with the couple showing great patience and awakening. to bring the visitors to 127-2 at stumps.
However, Hussain is concerned that the Sri Lanka show is a symbol of the worldwide Batting Test.
“Cricket was not a test game of the highest quality and it worries me,” he said. “I know this is a small sample size of one day, one innings but bat maids testing, in particular, all over the world right now is very troubling to me.
“Are people preparing the mind in the right way for test game innings? Long bat, value your wicket. Even the way people talk about people who do that, I picked them up [Cheteshwar] Pujara has stated, it ‘s almost like’ that ‘s tired, we do not want that now, it will block it, you have to show a purpose’ – no, your bats set it up.
“You can’t win a game on the first morning but you can definitely go a long way towards losing and that’s exactly what Sri Lanka have done.”
Watch the second day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and England on Sky Sports Cricket and a Main Event from 4.15am on Friday.