Paul Farbrace sees the potential for Sri Lanka to improve, believing they’ll be a different prospect at home for Australia in July.
Paul Farbrace is as well placed as anyone to pass judgment on the relative merits of both England and Sri Lanka’s teams following the whirlwind first Test in Leeds.
Farbrace was in charge of Sri Lanka, winning both the Asia Cup and World T20, before he moved home to take over his current role as England’s assistant coach two years ago.
Things have changed markedly for both sides since Farbrace made that move in 2014 to work alongside then coach Peter Moores, whose first act in his second spell in charge was to oversee England’s first home Test-series loss to Sri Lanka courtesy of defeat in the final match at Headingley.
It was a different story this time at the same venue, where England, now under the guidance of Australian coach Trevor Bayliss, ruthlessly routed the Sri Lankans inside three days.
There’s no doubt England, fired by the wickets of James Anderson and the brilliant all-round display from wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow, deserve high praise for the way they brutally exposed a Sri Lanka team still rebuilding following the retirements last year of batting greats Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara.
Yet, with Australia travelling to face them on home soil in a three-Test series starting in July, was this just a blip by Sri Lanka in alien conditions or a sign of a far bigger decline? “If we were in Colombo now on a dusty dry surface and it was 100 degrees and 100 per cent humidity and we had lost in three days it would be England can’t play spin etc,” Farbrace said. “I feel a bit for the Sri Lankans but I do think they will get better as the tour goes on. “Last time around we played the one-day series first and Test matches second.
By the Test matches they played good cricket so they will improve. Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal are three excellent players and will get runs in this series. “I think their bowling attack is excellent. Had they taken a couple of chances we might not have got as many runs and it would have been a different game.”
Batting though was Sri Lanka’s Achilles heel in Leeds, totals of 91 and 119 evidence of their inability to cope with the moving ball in conditions tailor-made for England’s seam attack.
“Don’t write off Sri Lanka because they have not got Mahela and Kumar,” Farbrace said. “They are not a poor side and I expect them to get better. They have one of the best coaches in world cricket in Graham Ford and he will keep pushing them to get better.
“He knows that it is going to be tough for them lacking experience but the only way you get better is by playing. There were glimpses of quality from some of their players.”
England can climb to No.2 in the ICC Test rankings behind only Australia if they win five of their seven Tests this northern summer against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. That looks eminently possible on the basis of this performance in the first Test but Farbrace says there is still room for improvement.
“With three or four wickets to go I was thinking how do we judge the performance?” he said.
“We should be really pleased with the way we played. “If we are serious about being the No.1 side in the world then there were times when we could have been a bit more clinical.
“We dropped two catches. It does happen and is part of the game but those are the things we have to get rid of. “Ideally you’re always searching for perfect game. That does not always happen. We think we still have areas we have to get better at.”
Sri Lanka will hope England don’t improve any further or there is likely to be even more pain over the final two Tests at Durham and Lord’s.
