Head coach Trevor Bayliss has admitted England have “some thinking to do” before deciding on their team for the Galle Test. With Jonny Bairstow now confirmed as an absentee for the first Test, which starts on Tuesday, England still have to decide who will keep wicket, who will bat at No. 3 and on the balance of their side.
They arrived at the ground on Sunday and were surprised to find just a little moisture in a pitch that otherwise looked pretty good for batting. With heavy rain again curtailing training, the ground was covered raising the prospect that the surface may not dry out as much as was previously expected. As a result, England are hesitating before confirming the selection of all three spin bowlers on a pitch that usually provides copious assistance for such bowlers.
“We’ve got a bit of thinking to do,” Bayliss told Talksport. “We’re not committing to an absolute 11 at this very moment. We’d be silly to do that in these weather conditions.
“The pitch has a little moisture in it at the moment but there’s still two days to go. If the covers are down for a little while it might hold some of that moisture but I still expect it to dry out and spin as the game goes on.”
With Bairstow ruled out of this game – but back in training and understood to have a good chance of returning for the second Test – Bayliss confirmed that either Jos Buttler or Ben Foakes will keep. While Foakes has yet to play international cricket, he is the higher-rated keeper, with Buttler admitting towards the end of the limited-overs series that he had not been satisfied with the level of his own keeping in recent times.
“Buttler and Foakes are both still very much in our thinking,” Bayliss said. “Definitely one of them will be keeping but how we structure the batting order and what combination of bowlers we put in to the team could determine who eventually gets the gloves.
“We’ve got to pick a team we think can take 20 wickets on some of these pitches in Sri Lanka.”
Among the options England are considering is playing either Moeen Ali or Ben Stokes at No. 3. There are concerns, however, that their workload as bowlers could prove too onerous for that. They also have to decide whether to play Buttler as keeper at No. 6 and potentially make room for three spinners (Moeen, Adil Rashid and Jack Leach) and four seamers (including Stokes, Sam Curran and James Anderson).
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