England in a Spin (again)

Regular visitors to File 13 will have to excuse the recycled headline to this piece, but we have been here before, haven't we?

England's defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in Galle yesterday was another painful reminder that England, whilst being ranked number one test side in the world, are woefully short of confidence, application and technique on spinning sub-continent wickets.

But should we be that surprised? I mean, as long as I've been watching cricket, which is a good 25 years or so, England have been fixated with winning the Ashes, an objective of course they have now successfully completed three times in the past 6 years. 

Since England's disastrous Ashes campaign of 2006 and following the subsequent and ill-fated Pietersen/Moores leadership struggle, the ECB  chose Andrew Strauss to captain and Andy Flower to coach England into a new era. Two steadying influences, and together they had one goal: win back the Ashes and retain them Down Under.

When England won the Ashes at home in 2009 they were happy but the nation wanted more. When England then headed to Australia 18 months later, nothing was left to chance. Training camps, team building exercises, an abundance of warm up games, and following all that England annihilated their opposition, much to the delight of all of us back home.

Mission accomplished, but suddenly a new objective presented itself: attain number 1 team status in the ICC test rankings. India, then incumbents of the top spot, were due to tour England in the summer of 2011. England therefore had the perfect opportunity to become number 1.

England beat a tired looking India side impressively 4-0, with essentially the same game plan that they used down under six months earlier: 3 seamers, 6 good, in-form batsmen and the best wicket keeper-batsman in test cricket. 

England destroyed India by batting long and scoring 'Daddy' hundreds. Not only that, but Anderson, Broad, Bresnan and Tremlett bullied Indian batsmen into submission, bowling short, aggressive stuff that India (bar Rahul Dravid) just couldn't handle.

And there it was. World domination secured, it was time for England's cricketers to put their feet up for 3 months. Can't say I blame them, their efforts over the previous 12 months or so had been exceptional.

However, once the side travelled to UAE earlier this year, they employed pretty much the same game plan that had stood them in such good stead for the 12 months hence. 3 seamers,  Swann the spinner and 6 batsmen hoping to bludgeon the opposition into submission once more. Only one teeny, tiny component had changed, which England had neglected to consider.

The wicket.

The wicket was no longer quick and bouncy. Instead, the wickets were slow, dry and extremely hard to extract any pace out of. England were caught woefully unprepared. 

Whether 3 months off had caused rustiness or whether they had simply taken their eye off the ball since being ordained number one test side in the world, England were second best all series and that form has continued into Sri Lanka.

England have changed their bowling line up, playing 3 spinners in Galle with Patel joining Graeme Swann and the hapless Monty Panesar, whose fielding was truly appalling in this game, but struggles with the bat haunt the top 6, to the point where you wonder if the players we saw in Australia will ever recover from this winter.

Questions have been raised about captain Strauss's long term future in the side, such is his lack of form of late, with Bob Willis using his resignation from the One Day side as a reason for his lack of form. He's not spending enough time with the lads, or playing enough cricket, was the gist of Willis' beef. 

Teams evolve and change. Strauss and Flowers objective was to avenge that humiliating 5-0 whitewash England suffered in Australia in 2006. Not only have they delivered that, they've exceeded all expectation.

 But for England to attain their next goal which must surely be to become more competitive on sub-continent wickets, perhaps Strauss needs to step aside.

Something's got to give, because the side that played in Galle this week does not look capable of dominating in these conditions. Herath took 12 wickets in the match and, with the greatest respect in the world, he is not that good a bowler.

There are good players coming through the ranks with the likes of Ben Stokes, Johnny Bairstow and James Brown to mention a few, maybe it's time to integrate them into this test side now, because the current batting line up are just not delivering in these conditions, and with England due to tour India later this year, they have to find a way to be more competitive in these conditions, and fast.

For now, the second test of this series starts next Tuesday in Colombo. Strauss, KP et al could just be playing for their futures, because a repeat performance of their failure to play spin may just shake England's selectors into making some drastic changes.