England Test skipper Joe Root feels seam bowling will play a big part in the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka which gets underway from Thursday.
Root, who has scored 7,823 Test runs, wants a collective effort from his bowlers in bundling out Sri Lanka rather than one or two players doing all the “donkey work” for England. “Seam will play a big part, whether that is building pressure or roughing batsman up for a period of time so the spinners can come into the game. With the weather around, it’s quite tacky, so that might open the door for some of the seamers,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Root as saying.
“Collectively, it’s really important that we look at trying to take 20 wickets as a whole bowling group and we don’t focus on one or two individuals to do all of the donkey work for us,” he added.
Root said that spinning tracks in Sri Lanka will throw challenges to the visiting team but they are adapting to the conditions quickly.
“That is one of the biggest challenges of coming and playing in Sri Lanka or in the sub-continent. The rhythm of the game is so different to play in English conditions. You face a lot more spin and a lot more double-spin from both ends and that’s part and parcel of playing in this part of the world,” the England skipper said as per the audio shared by ECB.
“It is really important that guys are ready for that and not just the rhythm of the game but the amount of spin and how quickly that can happen. That all things we have discussed at lengths as a batsmen group and as a team. Last time, it felt like whoever adapted quickest grabbed those big moments in the game. Hopefully, we can repeat that this time around,” he added.
For Sri Lanka, all-rounder Angelo Matthews and pacer Nuwan Pradeep have been added to the squad for the Test series.
Mathews was originally named in the Sri Lankan squad for the two Tests in South Africa but later withdrawn after he suffered a hamstring injury in the domestic T20 competition.
