There was little for the tourists to smile about during three cold, wet and trying Tests
Andrew Fidel Fernando14-Jun-20167Nuwan Pradeep (10 wickets at 31.60)Occasionally expensive, but often the most incisive in the attack, Pradeep moved the ball either way off the seam, prompting shots as bad as his haircut and sparking hope as thin as his limbs. In Sri Lanka’s final bowling innings of the series at Lord’s he left three sets of stumps splayed – this time, it wasn’t because he had fallen into them. Team-mates dropped several catches off him and their was also Rod Tucker’s erroneous no-ball. “If anyone deserved five wickets at Lord’s it was Pradeep,” was coach Graham Ford’s assessment.Rangana Herath (seven wickets at 43.28, 109 runs at 21.80)In the first two Tests, Sri Lanka batted too poorly to bring Herath properly into the match. But though he didn’t pick up as many wickets as he would have liked on his final tour of England, he did make plenty of new fans. Some of his best moments came with bat in hand, when he suggested to team-mates conditions were not quite as difficult as they had made them seem. At Lord’s, when Steven Finn sledged him, Herath gave him the long, irate glare of a father who had come home to find his son drinking with his friends on the verandah.6Dushmantha Chameera (three wickets at 21.33)Was a little low on his usual pace in his only match of the series, but did help clear out the tail at Headingley. How Sri Lanka missed that knack at Chester-le-Street and Lord’s. Went home with a stress-related back injury immediately after the first Test. So much of Sri Lanka’s Test bowling hopes seem to rely on his staying clear of harm in the future that SLC should build him a house full of padded rooms, and have him transported from place to place in bubble wrap.Kusal Perera (42 runs at 42.00)Came back from a ban and immediately suggested the No. 7 position in the Test side should be his, allowing him to provide impetus from lower down the order. He has shown substantial mental strength over the past few months – not least in stepping back into his whites despite only recently returning to training, and having suffered visa delays after being picked.Dinesh Chandimal (172 runs at 34.40)Provided Sri Lanka’s innings of the series in the second dig at Chester-le-Street, from the No.6 position that seems more suited to him than the No. 4 spot he began the tour in. He is less animated behind the stumps than he once was, but also seemed to think someone had put a landmine down just to the right of his keeping position, because he didn’t even attempt to pouch two chances that flew past his right glove.Dinesh Chandimal’s hundred at Chester-le-Street was the innings of the series for Sri Lanka•AFP5Shaminda Eranga (five wickets at 64.80)Moved the ball away from batsmen at a lively pace, but was often also guilty of relieving pressure with loose overs. He didn’t bowl as badly as the figures suggested, partly because so many chances off the edge went through unnecessarily, bafflingly, infuriatingly vacant slips. His career is now at something of a crossroads, with the results from his biomechanical test due in the next few days. Still, even with a suspect action, he managed not to stir the local media into a frenzy when he played at Lord’s, and that, in a way, is an achievement.Kusal Mendis (156 runs at 31.20)Coaches are raving about his technique. Fans are excited by his strokeplay. The man himself seems focused and unaffected by it all. He provided the only batting resistance Sri Lanka could manage at Headingley, and made a few bright starts thereafter. It seems as if almost everyone in the squad can’t resist ruffling his hair.Suranga Lakmal (five wickets at 51.80)The least menacing of the seamers who played in this series but usually a reliable support bowler when someone was testing batsmen at the other end. His best bowling was early in the first innings at Lord’s, when he had Nick Compton edging behind and Joe Root trapped in front of the stumps. Though the gangliest of the attack, he also took some of the most athletic catches on the boundary.Dasun Shanaka (three wickets at 15.33, four runs at 2.00)Sri Lanka haven’t really known what to make of Shanaka, because at times it seems he hasn’t really known what to make of himself. He forced himself into the Headingley XI with a swashbuckling hundred in a warm-up match, invited batsmen to drive on the first day with his drifting flower petal seam-up deliveries, then failed twice with the bat – though he did get some nigh-unplayable balls. He is a walking national stereotype where wide, warm smiles are concerned. Expect to see more of his endearingly exposed teeth in the limited-overs series.Kaushal Silva (193 runs at 32.16)Had one of the toughest jobs in the series – in facing the England attack at their freshest, with a hard Dukes ball in hand – and came out of that challenge with moderate credit. His half-century at Chester-le-Street laid the base for a confidence-building recovery, and his positivity at Lord’s was refreshing from a player who has generally scored slowly. By the end of the tour, even his defensive shots had character; he left the ball like it had been unfaithful to him, although his final act was an ill-advised shouldering of arms.4Milinda Siriwardana (three wickets at 24.00, 35 runs at 17.50)Why he only played one match after such a promising start to his Test career, only the selectors will know. He spun the ball hard at Chester-le-Street, but will admit that his batting has some way to go in swinging conditions. Of all the pretty but inconsequential drives Sri Lanka played this series, Siriwardana might have played the prettiest one, on the third day of the second Test.3Dimuth Karunaratne (129 runs at 25.80)Having made such progress in his batting over the past 18 months, and having also had moderately successful tours of New Zealand, more was expected from Karunaratne. He was perhaps guilty of being too tentative early in the tour, which is the opposite problem from the one he had in 2014. Scores of 50 and 37 not out at Lord’s salvaged his series somewhat.Angelo Mathews was not the batting bulwark his team have come to rely on•PA PhotosAngelo Mathews (125 runs at 25.00, one wicket at 98.00)Delivered some fine supporting spells without breaking through, but for once he was an enthusiastic member in the collapse , instead of Sri Lanka’s batting bulwark. He was excellent at first slip to the spinners again. His captaincy, though, was flabby for most of the series. At Chester-le-Street on day two, anyone else in the team, or members of the public, or even the cardboard cutouts of him at the ground, might have led more proactively than the flesh-and-blood Mathews.2Lahiru Thirimanne (87 runs at 17.40)After 50 Test innings, Thirimanne averages 24.00. At times in this tour, he seemed to have excellent defensive technique. He batted 262 balls. Joe Root, in comparison, faced only 140. He was perhaps trying to make the ball old so the strokemakers around him could prosper but, with a high score of 22, it was Sri Lanka fans he was really successful at aging.