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Sri Lanka hold the edge over England
By Aubrey Kuruppu
At the time of putting pen to paper the second England-Bangladesh test has just about started, and it's a bit premature to hazard a guess as to its outcome. This much is certain. The newest entry to the test ranks seems to be doing its best to get rid of the push-over tag.

Habibul Bushar, Khaled Mohamud et al have, by now, had a fair bit of exposure and seem to be the better for it. Add to that a new coach who seems to have made an immediate impact and 'what more' do you need?

There were curtailments due to the weather. However England huffed and puffed their way to victory, thanks in the main to an inept display by the Bangladesh tail, in the first test.

The omens, as far as England go, are not propitious when considering their impending tour of Sri Lanka. Captaincy is an important factor and here the playing field is seemingly equal. Tillekaratne, Atapattu and Vaughan are all new captains, feeling their way through and trying to ease themselves into the job. But the Sri Lankans are far more experienced than their English counterpart in the matter of tests and ODIs.

In terms of personnel, the Sri Lankans have a healthy hard-core of very experienced men. Not so England, when you consider their bowlers. Giles has been around a bit as has Hoggard, but the others (the formidable Flintoff excepted) are unknown quantities. Sri Lankan pitches will not overly help English seamers and, to put it differently, English spinners (save for Giles) even though obtaining a modicum of turn could find the Sri Lankan top order too hot to handle.

The passing of the captaincy from Hussain to is much more significant than it appears at first sight. Hussain was tough, uncompromising, unafraid to take unpopular decisions and could, if need be, eyeball Steve Waugh and not necessarily come off second best.

One's mind goes back to the last tour of India and Hussain's play to worry Tendulkar to distraction by getting Giles to bowl round the wicket and into the rough. Super bat that he is, Tendulkar did score runs but not in the same profusion and for the first time in his test career, was stumped. Also, importantly, Hussain and Fletcher were on the same wavelength.

Vaughan lacks most of Hussains' positives, and is still to establish a similar relationship with his coach. But being a Yorkshire product Vaughans disarming style could be misleading. With time, he is bound to leave his own, unmistakably impress on the team he inherited from Nasser Hussain.

England's top order, together with the admirable Flintoff who now seems to be maturing rapidly to become a blazing and consistent striker of the ball, will have to bat their team out of trouble. This is to offset the lack of flair and experience among their bowlers. However, the task demands skill and patience of a high order, especially when up against the tantalising spin of Muralitharan and the left arm efficiency of Vaas.

This brings me to another point. The thinness of Sri Lanka's bowling resources at test level continues to cause unease. The reserve bowling strength is stacked with medium pacers, some of them brisk. But given the ineffectiveness of the other spinners, Sri Lanka is bound to cop it should either Vaas or Murali (or both) have bad days at the office.

Sri Lanka obviously start favourities, given their experience, the fact that they will be playing on home soil (for more accurately bare brown tracks) and English fallibility against Muralithararan. Come to think of it, only Butcher of the present team played in Murali's test at the Fosters Oval in 1998!! This is not necessarily a bad thing because in consequence, there are fewer ghosts to exercise.

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