England cricket’s woes continue after disastrous Ashes series as 50-over side lose first ODI in Sri Lanka by 19 runs

After two months of Ashes woe, England might have viewed a change of scene as a blessing, but they have simply swapped one unconquered frontier for another.

For their recent record in limited-overs internationals in subcontinental conditions is on a par with their wretched sequence in Test cricket down under, over four tours dating back to 2010-11.

They came into a series against Sri Lanka postponed since Covid on the back of 10 straight defeats overseas in the 50-over format, and 20 in their last 24 white-ball matches in Asia.

And so the 19-run defeat in Colombo at the start of the build-up to next month’s Twenty20 World Cup was, like their performances against Australia this winter, painfully predictable.

During the 4-1 Ashes defeat, spin bowling was at a premium, with Nathan Lyon playing only a bit-part role and Australia even foregoing a specialist in spin-friendly Sydney, but reputations against the turning ball in this part of the world are not easily forgotten.

Opponents are well aware of their weakness. Over the course of those two dozen white-ball internationals stretching back to a tour of Bangladesh in 2023, England were subjected to 47 per cent of the 842.1 overs they faced being sent down by spinners.

Sri Lanka are an excellent home side, winning 16 and losing just two of their previous 19 completed ODIs on their own soil. For this, the 16th, they took playing to their strength and England’s weakness to an extreme level, opening with seven overs of seam inside the first nine, but then turning almost exclusively to spin for 34 of the next 36.

Charith Asalanka, their captain, did not have the luxury of calling upon his two most attacking exponents of the art in leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga and mystery man Maheesh Theekshana, as they were rested with the World Cup in mind.

Instead, he went onto the defensive, using his own darted off-spin and that of Dhananjaya de Silva to dry up the runs. De Silva strung together 32 dots in eight overs, a process that had the dual purpose of building pressure in real time and softening the ball for later in the innings, making it harder to hit off a slow pitch.

England have never chased more than 240 to win an ODI in Sri Lanka and so even though the century stand by Joe Root and Ben Duckett set a platform, its construction was too slow.

In spinning conditions in particular, chasing teams are best suited getting ahead of the required run rate, but it was above a run a ball when Root was dismissed and touching 7.5 when Duckett departed soon afterwards.

The middle order of Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler and Sam Curran then did neither one thing nor the other, neglecting the opportunity to rotate the strike or find the boundary in combining for 45 off 74 deliveries.

Even accounting for Rehan Ahmed’s punchy cameo, there were still 69 runs required off the final 31 deliveries. And so, Jamie Overton’s late muscle, which contributed 34 off 17, simply narrowed the chasm.

This is a period of change for English cricket off the field. On Thursday, Luke Wright stepped down after three years as national selector citing the need to spend more time with his young family. Two familiar faces in Troy Cooley and Carl Hopkinson have been welcomed back as bowling coach and fielding coach respectively this week.

But it cannot come quickly enough on it, primarily in the way that their batters play spin, if England are to avoid a winter of disappointment taking further turns for the worse.