Strauss won't write off Sri Lanka

Andrew Strauss
12 April 2012

Andrew Strauss is wary of the world-class ability still lurking in a Sri Lanka batting line-up which is high on quality if a little lacking in depth.

Strauss will be unsurprised if there is telling response from the likes of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene - who did not do themselves justice in the dramatic first Test defeat - with the tourists are set to carry on at Lord's on Friday with a team balanced only six-five in favour of batsmen.

"With players of the quality of Jayawardene and Sangakarra, you're expecting them to score runs - not every innings but at some stage during the series," said the England captain. "If they're still feeling for form a little bit, that's a great thing for us - and we need to exploit that. But we are fully expecting them to be very tough nuts to crack over the next week."

Jayawardene would become only the second overseas batsmen in history to make three hundreds at Lord's, should he reach three figures in the match - and Sangakkara is joint third in the world rankings of Test batsman, alongside England's Jonathan Trott.

The answer, as ever with England under Strauss and coach Andy Flower, is not to waste breath on the opposition but make sure you have your own house in order - and they believe they have.

Reflecting on Cardiff, where Sri Lanka were bowled out for 82 in their second innings, Strauss said: "When another team builds up momentum in a given session, it's very hard to wrestle that back - and I give a lot of credit to our bowlers for the way they kept asking probing questions of their batsmen when they came in.

"But whatever the feelings in their camp are of no real consequence to us. We've got to concentrate on what we do well. Our bowling has had a lot of success against a number of different sides recently, so I think it would be wrong to say those sides were poor batting units.

"There's a real confidence in our bowling group. They believe they are a match for anyone now - which is a great mindset to have, and the basis of it has been all four of the bowlers probing and asking questions all the time.

"I thought the first innings in Cardiff, although we didn't bowl brilliantly, a lot of balls passed the edge - and we could have bowled them out cheaply. In the second innings, a lot of things went our way - and we had that great result.

"If we keep sticking to those principles, we are going to have more good days than bad."

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