Sri Lanka v England Analysis: What have the tourists learned?

England Cricket / Ed Hawkins / 07 April 2012 /

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Andrew Strauss smiles after the second Test win but this has not been a good winter for England

"No doubt there will be some who will argue ‘you are only as good as your last game’ but as punters we would forever be checking the back of the sofa for spare pennies if we agreed"

SJA Betting Writer of the Year Ed Hawkins says that England's victory in the second Test should not hide serious failings

So the lasting images of England's winter schedule will include Kevin Pietersen effortlessly lofting Tillakaratne Dilshan, a spin bowler, into the stands for six and then the batsman turning to the Barmy Army, billeted on the midwicket boundary, and sending them a salute.

As victors by eight wickets, the sort of margin that suggested Sri Lanka was about as harmful as pesky fly, occasionally being required to be swatted away with a waft of the wrist, England will feel full of joy, and no doubt some bombast.

After all, they had halted a four-match losing streak, saved the series and maintained their position as the No 1 Test side in the world (please). The point of these end-of-play posts is to try to understand what we have learned and what will happen next. Do England ask the same questions of themselves?

One should hope so. But there has to be a doubt about that given the way England began the series in Sri Lanka - collapsing horribly to defeat in Galle - in the same fashion that they ended their tour of the UAE against Pakistan. There was not even a semblance of improvement as Rangana Herath, the roly-poly journeyman, claimed a career-best 12 wickets.

The hard facts of this winter are that England played five Tests and lost four. No doubt there will be some who will argue 'you are only as good as your last game' but as punters we would forever be checking the back of the sofa for spare pennies if we agreed.

It is far more sensible to look at the bigger picture. And that picture is a rather depressing one for England. Not now, of course. They, and their supporters, will be too busy revelling in a job well done and the trials which they failed against Saeed Ajmal and Herath will be forgotten. For months.

Until that is, they go to India in November for four Test matches and suffer the same sort of problems. As it stands, England are unbackable in that series because in four Tests out of five in the Asian sub-continent they have shown to be utterly hopeless at combating spin bowling. Even in this last Test 11 of their 12 wickets to fall went to spinners.

Hope will almost certainly spring eternal for England in India if Andrew Strauss's team enjoy a successful summer against a weak West Indies team and a strong South Africa. If they win both series these hard times in the UAE and Sri Lanka will definitely have been erased from the memory bank by all concerned: players, coaches, spectators. Do not be fooled.

The status quo - that England cannot play spin - will remain because West Indies and South Africa in the England summer offer no such threat. It will be seam and swing all the way. There will be no examination of their greatest weakness.

Nor will there be time for England to come up with a plan to combat Harbhjan Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ravi Ashwin or whichever spinners India decide to pick as tormentors in chief. Enjoy it England, for now. In a few months you'll be back to square one.

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