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England star’s quarantine period means she will miss London derby against Oval on Sunday

George Dobell23-Jul-2021Tammy Beaumont was a surprise absentee for London Spirit as they started their Hundred campaign with a match against Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston.Beaumont, the England top-order batter who is anticipated to be one of the star players of the competition, had been given permission to attend a family wedding. She will also miss Spirit’s second match, the London Derby against Oval Invincibles, on Sunday.It is understood the wedding of her brother took place on Wednesday but the need to observe Covid protocols has obliged Beaumont to observe a quarantine period before joining up with the rest of the squad.While the timing is unfortunate – this is the first double-header of the tournament – the ECB are keen to ensure the long-term welfare of their top players. Many of them have spent an extended amount of time in ‘bubbles’ over the last year and there is the prospect of plenty more to come.Equally, they are keen to avoid a situation where an entire squad could be ruled out by one positive test and a requirement for others to self-isolate.”Tammy Beaumont was given permission to attend a family wedding and is therefore unavailable for London Spirit’s first two games as she follows the COVID-19 testing protocol before re-entering the team environment,” the ECB said in a statement. “We recognise that safe living asks a lot of our players, and with their wellbeing at the front of our minds it’s right that we support them.”Readers of a certain age may recall Tony Pigott missing his own wedding – well, postponing it – when he was called up for England’s Test team while in New Zealand in early 1984. New Zealand won by an innings and Pigott was never called up again.London Spirit had better news with the availability of Deandra Dottin. The Barbadian only arrived in the UK from Antigua (which is on the Green List) earlier this week and, having undergone two negative PCR tests, was introduced to her team-mates over Zoom on Thursday evening and joined up with them shortly before the game.

Players with families might choose to retire, the Australia batsman says, instead of long stints on the road

Daniel Brettig28-Jul-2020David Warner believes that restrictive biosecurity bubbles of the kind Australia are expected to encounter while touring England in September may be a factor for players with families, who might choose to retire rather than face long stints away from their partners and children.Speaking about the realities in the time of Covid-19 – ahead of the England tour, followed by the IPL in the UAE, and then the home summer – Warner said that time with his family of wife Candice and their three daughters would appear less likely in an environment where teams need to be quarantined in order to fulfil international fixtures. The demands of that scenario will figure highly in Warner’s thinking when he considers when to pare back or finish his days as an international cricketer, having flagged last summer that he was considering, at the age of 33, whether to retire from one or more international formats in order to prolong his overall playing time.”Obviously three daughters and my wife, who I owe a lot to, has been a big part of my playing career,” he said. “You’ve always got to look out for your family first, and with cricket and these unprecedented times, you’ve got to weigh up these decisions. Look, at the moment, I’ll keep continuing to aim for that. Obviously the T20 [World Cup] is not here at home, which would have been ideal to play that and win that here. Now that gets pushed back. I will have to have a rethink about that when it comes to India.”I’ll see where I am and where the girls are at with school as well. A lot of that is a big part of my decision. It’s not just when the games are being played and how much cricket’s being played. It’s a big family decision for myself. There are times when you go away and miss your family a lot and at the moment with all these biosecurity measures that are in place, we’re going to not be able to have the luxury of our families coming away with us now and it could be for the foreseeable future.”As the prime minister [Scott Morrison] said, we might not be able to go overseas or visitors won’t be able to come into Australia. They are things that we need to play by ear and if and when I do make that decision, it’ll be predominantly a family decision.”Victoria’s current outbreak has left the state in a precarious position relative to the rest of the country, leaving Warner to conclude that Australia may need to get their heads around not playing in Melbourne around the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays for the first time in living memory.”Yeah, we have to look at it like that. I’m sitting here and you guys are too today looking at how many cases are happening in Victoria at the moment,” he said. “Even the guys trying to get out of Victoria, it’s very, very challenging as well. It’s going to be challenging for everyone. I think we spoke about state cricket. That’s the perfect example. How is Victoria going to be able to start (Sheffield) Shield cricket down there. At the moment, it seems like it’ll be impossible.Players with families might not want long stints away from home, David Warner feels•Getty Images

“But I think they’ll have to put things in place to play it somewhere else. Even if we do play down there, then coming out of Victoria you’ll have to quarantine for 14 days into other states. There are so many elements to it that it’s out of our control and hands at the moment. Whatever happens, if you put something in place now, it’s going to change tomorrow. It’s very, very difficult to process. We’ll have to see and adapt. And you might see the first Boxing Day Test not in Melbourne.”Looking at the likelihood of travelling to England, then to the UAE for a relocated IPL, then home for scheduled Tests against Afghanistan and India, Warner agreed that a surfeit of white-ball matches would not be an ideal lead-in when lined up against the two or three Shield fixtures that Australia’s cricketers have become accustomed to playing before the start of a home international season.”Usually you have a couple of Shield games leading into a Test series, especially at home,” he said. “So I think the unique thing about it is the Indian team and ourselves are going to be in the same boat really. We’re going to have a lack of red-ball cricket preparation and end of the day we have to make the most of that time training in the lead up to the Test series.”We’ve played enough high-level cricket to adapt to red ball. But there are obviously guys back in Australia who won’t be playing in the one-day series or the IPL, who have to try and get ready to prepare. Hopefully there are a couple of games they can play interstate against each other, if something is put in place. We’re obviously unsure and unclear given states are in lockdown or not letting people from other states go interstate.David Warner – and some others – might head into the home Tests straight after the IPL in the UAE•BCCI

“We have to sit back and wait for the government and states to see what the regulations are behind that. All we can do really is train with our states and prepare as well as we can on the wickets provided to get ready for the season.”In a way, the challenges will be a more concentrated version of the kind of dilemmas Australia’s cricketers and selectors have faced most years since the dawn of the Big Bash League, and even before that with the T20 Champions League, which forced players to juggle formats at a formative time of the season.”I feel that – obviously there is going to be a squad of 15 picked for example, and if there’s no Shield cricket being played up until Christmas, it doesn’t give anyone else an opportunity to be picked,” Warner said. “Like if there’s an injury there is nobody coming up from red-ball cricket. So there are these situations that we’re going to have to play by ear and try to get guys to be prepared in case something happens.”There’s three Tests leading into Christmas and coming off three or four Shield games played beforehand as well. So there’s going to be a lack of red-ball cricket obviously – it’s going to be challenging. If someone goes down, we’ll have to bring a person in with a lack of red-ball preparation. That’s foreign to all of us. It doesn’t really happen – and we’re just going to have to adapt to that.”

Kevin Roberts conceded that further revelations about the scandal 12 months ago would be damaging to the game

Daniel Brettig28-Mar-20194:42

Smith and Warner’s year in cricket wilderness

Kevin Roberts, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has called for anyone with evidence of the national team tampering with the ball prior to the Newlands Test to come forward. Roberts also conceded that further revelations about the scandal 12 months ago would be damaging to the game.Speaking at the Melbourne Press Club a year on from the Cape Town Test that saw Cameron Bancroft exposed for attempting to use sandpaper to tamper with the ball, as advised by David Warner and tacitly approved by Steven Smith, Roberts defended the swift investigation conducted by the former head of integrity Iain Roy. Roberts also responded to the former CA Board director Mark Taylor’s comments that the limitation of the probe to the Cape Town Test left a “grey area” around whether the Australians had tampered with the ball previously.”There’s no doubt that that would affect the way that cricket fans and the general public views cricket, that’s for sure,” Roberts said when asked whether further revelations would be damaging to cricket. “I suppose we’re dealing with the ‘what is’ rather than the ‘what ifs’. We could jump at shadows, we could react to innuendo. If facts come to light we’ll be addressing those, and if that means there’s issues for us in the short term because we do the right thing then so be it, because it’ll benefit the integrity and reputation of the sport that we love in the long term.”Plenty of questions remain unanswered, with CA caught between preserving reputations and trying to regain trust with the Australian public. Corporate confidentiality clauses have been a feature of settlements for former CA employees connected to the scandal, with the ex-assistant coach David Saker notable for his silence since he resigned his post with the national team at the end of the home Test summer. Saker is believed to be subject to a non-disclosure agreement that will expire after this year’s Ashes series in September.Warner and Smith, meanwhile, have been carefully managed in their comments on their way back to national representation after the bans, though it is believed that Warner in particular has been involved in discussions about writing an autobiography that would shed greater light on his part in the scandal and his role within the team.”All current and former employees, like any organisation, have confidentiality obligations,” Roberts said. “That’s not CA being heavy handed, I’m sure people in the room here have had a look at your own employment agreements and clauses in there so there’s nothing unusual about that. At the same time we don’t want to control or muzzle people in cricket.”The richness of debate in cricket is fantastic … we embrace that passion, we embrace that debate. I guess it’s a balance, we all need to respect our confidentiality obligations but we also need to ensure we’re being fair dinkum towards this notion that we want to enable and empower people in cricket rather than control. It’s not always simple to walk that fine line but it’s something we try to do.”Getty Images

On the subject of the investigation conducted over 48 hours between the Cape Town and Johannesburg Tests at the end of the South Africa series last year, Roberts pointed out that there was time pressure created by the need to field a team in the final match, without knowing how many players would be implicated. In contrast to earlier in the summer when he stated that the “thorough” investigation required no more probing, he called upon any member of the Australian cricket community with further evidence to come forward.”If they’ve got any concerns about ball tampering or any concerns about any integrity issue in the game, we’ve invited them to report that through our anonymous integrity hotline or through other means that are available to them,” Roberts said. “We haven’t had any such reports, so we won’t jump at shadows, but if anyone does report concerns about any integrity matter prior to ball tampering or whatever it may be, we’re serious about addressing that, and we have a process to address it.”We’re really serious about addressing any unresolved issues and we’re sincere in the way we’re going about that. So if there are any reports or allegations as opposed to innuendo, then we will investigate that thoroughly.”Certainly the investigation needed to be conducted swiftly, we needed to fulfil our commitment to field a team against South Africa the following week, and we didn’t know whether we’d need to fly 11 new players in to fill that team or no new players. The ultimate answer was somewhere in between. So the investigation was absolutely fit for purpose, but we haven’t rested on those laurels. We’ve made repeated and extensive invitations to anyone to report any integrity matters or concerns about ball tampering ever since.”Following a home summer that presented numerous challenges, not least heavy defeats to South Africa and India before some solace was taken from a pummelling of Sri Lanka, the ODI team under the captaincy of Aaron Finch has run into strong form and growing confidence in India, and the UAE against Pakistan. Roberts denied he was concerned that the returns of Smith and Warner to that team would destabilise what has been building, while also stating that he did not expect the team to be a collection of best mates.”Justin [Langer], the leadership of the Test team and the white-ball teams in the form of Tim [Paine] and Aaron, they’ve had just about a year and they’ve spent a long time together, a lot of time on the road, that’s a whole lot more intense than turning up to a radio station or an office to work with your colleagues,” he said. “A year of this rebuild and a year of doing that together in sport, is probably like three years in the business world or the media or some other world. So I’m not concerned but we are very focused on ensuring that positive momentum continues.”In any workplace we don’t need to be best mates with everyone that we work with. There needs to be a foundation of respect absolutely, and I think there’s growing respect there and we’ll continue to support the players with the right discussions and work those through. As to whether every player in the men’s team or women’s team is best mates with the rest of their team-mates, it’s not different to any other workplace where you’ll have some very close friendships, some cordial relationships and some that are a bit more challenging. But I don’t see it being beyond the realms of any other workplace.”

The New Zealand left-arm spinner and the Pakistan batsman took the top spot from Ish Sodhi and Colin Munro respectively

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jan-2018New Zealand left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner has displaced team-mate Ish Sodhi as the No. 1 bowler in T20Is, following his haul of four wickets in the home series against Pakistan. Ish Sodhi, who took two wickets in the series at an economy rate of 8.66, has moved down to third place. Santner leads the second-placed Rashid Khan by one point. He is the fourth New Zealander after Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond and Sodhi to secure the top spot for bowlers.Pakistan batsman Babar Azam, who was the leading scorer in the series with 109 runs in three innings at an average of 54.50 and strike-rate of 125.28, has vaulted 11 places to become the No.1 batsman in T20Is. Babar is only the second Pakistan batsman, after former captain Misbah-ul-Haq, to the landmark. Colin Munro, who had held the top spot before the start of the series, slipped to fourth after managing 50 runs in two innings.Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan continues to be the top-ranked T20I allrounder followed by Australia’s Glenn Maxwell.Shakib was also the No. 1 allrounder in the ODI rankings, having reclaimed the top spot from Mohammad Hafeez. In the ODI rankings for bowlers, Hasan Ali dropped to fifth from first. South Africa legspinner Imran Tahir leads the list followed by Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood.

Despite the defeat to Sri Lanka in the tri-series final, Graeme Cremer was positive about Zimbabwe’s overall performance through the series

Liam Brickhill in Bulawayo27-Nov-2016There was a kind of symmetry to this tri-series, which started and ended with a capitulation by Zimbabwe’s batsmen. The difference, for captain Graeme Cremer, was that this time around his team made Sri Lanka work much harder for their win. Defending 160, Zimbabwe took a wicket with the first legitimate delivery bowled and Sri Lanka toiled for 38 overs for their six-wicket victory.”When we went out there, we said even if they get our score one wicket down, we’ll make it as hard as we can for them,” Cremer said. “We weren’t going to go searching for the wickets, but we wanted to put them under pressure and make it the hardest 160 they’ve scored. That was our goal.”Cremer had Kusal Mendis caught in the deep for 57, while left-arm quick Brian Vitori – who was not originally part of Zimbabwe’s squad for this series – nipped out three wickets at the top of the order. Vitori’s was one of three surprising changes Zimbabwe made to their XI for this match. Malcolm Waller was brought back, without making much impact, but Tarisai Musakanda, the 21-year-old Mid-West Rhinos batsman, sprinted to an eye-catching 36 on debut.”We hadn’t really put on a big total [previously], so we felt that maybe just changing it up a little bit, and putting up something different to all the innings that Sri Lanka have had might work,” coach Heath Streak explained. “Musakanda is someone we’ve been holding back, but we just felt it was the right time. They didn’t know much about him, and he showed exactly what he’s got.”I think he’s got a bright future. I’m very happy with him. And then Vitori, we picked him for exactly what he showed today. We felt we needed him. (Dhananjaya) De Silva and (Kusal) Perera have been really damaging up front, and we got them both early, so that paid off.”Vitori had played for the Zimbabwe A side against Pakistan last month, before heading to Cape Town to fulfill a club contract. Because of this, he was not originally included in Zimbabwe’s tri-series squad, but had been training with the group since his return from South Africa. “He had a contract in Cape Town, and we’d wanted him to stay but he had to go down and fulfill that,” Streak explained. “But he managed to get back here, despite missing out on the Test series. And he’s been practising and bowling with us here in the nets with the boys, and giving all our batters a hard time, so we felt that maybe he could do that to the opposition.”Cremer admitted to have made a mistake by choosing to bat first•AFP

Cremer conceded that, in hindsight, bowling first might have been Zimbabwe’s best choice upon winning the toss. The weather forecast for the match hinted at rain, with the afternoon looking particularly iffy. As it turned out, Zimbabwe batted through gloomy low cloud and rain, while Sri Lanka’s batsmen had the benefit of bright sunshine that dried the pitch and eased batting conditions.”In hindsight, we probably could have bowled first,” Cremer said. “But the way it looked this morning, we thought it would only get worse or stay how it was. The wicket was a bit sticky this morning, so it took a lot of turn. But it looked really good to bat out there this afternoon. It’s just one of those things. We couldn’t predict that.”Unpredictable weather aside, Streak suggested that 240 would have been a defendable total on this pitch. “It was a wicket that over 600 runs had been scored on recently,” Streak said. “It was still quite dry, although obviously with a bit of rain, it got a little bit tacky. Despite that, no-one really got out, other than Masakadza, to an unplayable delivery.”It wasn’t a 300 wicket by any stretch of the imagination. We could have got to 240 or 250 if we’d batted a bit more sensibly, and if we’d done that it could have been a different story today. We’ve got to move on and take the good part of the series with us, and learn from the things that we didn’t do so well, and make sure we don’t repeat them in the future.”Despite Sunday’s defeat, Cremer was positive about Zimbabwe’s overall performance through this series. The hosts were able to knock West Indies out of the competition, while batsmen Sikandar Raza and Craig Ervine have found some form, averaging 54.33 and 36.75, respectively, across five innings.”We’re still trying to find the right combinations,” Cremer said. “Streaky has just come in [as coach]. I haven’t been captain for that long. So we’re trying to find the right XI for the conditions we play in, whether we go away or we play here. A lot of positives. We’ve got a lot of young guys coming through. Carl Mumba is a bright prospect. Musakanda of course. PJ Moor is still really young in international cricket, and we know he can play at this level. Raza played really well in a few innings. It’s good to see him back in a bit of form. Sean Williams showed signs today that he’s starting to get back into it. So we’re quite excited for the couple of months ahead.”Zimbabwe will – hopefully – be starting their domestic season at the beginning of December. Their next scheduled assignment is away, to Sri Lanka, in June, but coach Heath Streak insisted that other fixtures would be added to the calendar in the new year.”We’ve got some tours that we’re working on, between now and [Sri Lanka],” Streak said. “We’ll definitely have some cricket between now and the time we got to Sri Lanka next year. Guys have got provincial cricket, and we’ll get together as a national squad where opportunity arises. There is a lot of specific stuff that we want to work on and keep improving. I’ve spoken about fielding, but there are all sorts of things that we need to put in place. There will be a lot of cricket early next year.”

In a move away from hundreds of years of cricket tradition, there will be no mandatory toss in either division of the English County Championship in the 2016 season

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Nov-2015In a departure from hundreds of years of cricket tradition, there will be no mandatory toss in either division of the English County Championship in the 2016 season, after the ECB confirmed they were implementing an experiment to try to encourage the development of spin bowling.Instead of the toss, something that was recorded as taking place as far back as the 1700s, the visiting team will first have the choice of whether they want to field first. If they don’t wish to take up that option the toss will take place as it always has.There has been growing concern that the standard of pitches in county cricket – particularly in Division Two – is compromising the development of players. Specifically, the role of spinners has become marginalised on surfaces that sometimes provide extravagant help to medium-pace seamers while batsmen, fearful that they will receive an unplayable delivery sooner rather than later, have responded by playing more aggressively. As a result, some of the skills required to succeed in Test cricket – patience, discipline and consistency – have been lost.Initial reports about the move had centred on the trial being used only in Division Two of the Championship but, after a meeting of the ECB cricket committee at Lord’s on Thursday, it was decided to implement it across the board in four-day cricket.”By giving the away team the option of bowling first, we hope the home side will be encouraged to produce the best possible four-day pitch,” Peter Wright, the chairman of the cricket committee, said. “That will be good for cricket in general, and not only for spinners: batsmen should also benefit, from better pitches which will lead to them facing more spin bowling; and if pitches start drier, the ball may scuff up a bit more and produce more reverse swing.

Who is the ECB cricket committee?

Peter Wright (Chairman)
Alan Fordham (ECB Head of Cricket Operations)
Tom Harrison (ECB Chief Executive Officer)
Andrew Strauss (Director, England Cricket)
Angus Porter (Chief Executive – Professional Cricketers’ Association)
Rob Key (Kent captain)
David Leatherdale (Chief Executive – Worcestershire)
Mark Robinson (formerly Sussex’s Cricket Manager – recently appointed head coach of England Women)
Steve Garrett (First-Class umpire)
Andy Flower (ECB’s Technical Director of Elite Coaching) also attended at the committee’s invitation.

“It isn’t all about spin. There has been concern for some years about some Championship pitches. But it is fair to say that the plight of spin bowling in this country brought things into focus.”Of course counties want to win matches, and that generally means taking 20 wickets. That has to be a reason we have seen a lot of pitches that start a bit green and damp, and get better as the game goes on, rather than deteriorating to help the spinners. But another main function of the County Championship is to develop players for England. We don’t think it has been serving that purpose for spinners.”We did originally consider introducing this as a trial in one division only but, after further discussion and debate today, we have decided to extend this to both divisions of the County Championship. We believe this is an innovation which will be watched closely well beyond the County Championship. We will then need to assess how successful the trial has been at the end of the 2016 season before deciding whether to continue with this.”Peter Such, the ECB’s lead spin bowling coach, recently told ESPNcricinfo: “In overseas Test cricket somewhere between 46-48% of overs are bowled by spinners, but in county cricket that figure is around 20%.” At a couple of division two counties, that figure drops below 10% at home games.”The pitches tend to start damp, which makes them seam-bowler dominated and makes it very hard for spin bowlers to break through. We need to do more to encourage spin bowling.”

Tim Bresnan has Alastair Cook in his sights over the next two days at Lord’s as he attempts to secure a recall for the opening Test against New Zealand.

Andrew McGlashan13-May-2013Tim Bresnan has Alastair Cook in his sights over the next two days at Lord’s as he attempts to secure a recall for the opening Test against New Zealand. The England captain could be in for an uncomfortable time.Cook briefly netted against James Anderson and Stuart Broad on Monday but practice will go up in intensity on Tuesday with Bresnan keen to show that he is worth a starting place after recovering from the elbow problem that hampered him for much of the previous year.”I would not be surprised if the net rota goes up and I’m bowling at him,” Bresnan said. “I think that is one of the things Andy Flower likes to do.”He has taken 13 County Championship wickets at 27.07 for Yorkshire this season and believes he is back “as good as ever” after having a piece of bone removed from his right elbow. But he is still expected to be the 12th man when the coin goes up and that is something he is desperate to change over the next few days.”I am not here to carry the drinks,” he said. “I am here to play the game and throw my hat in the ring for selection. I think the next two days will tell the management and Cooky a lot about where I am at and what I can do.”I probably lost three or four yards of pace to be honest. I feel I have got that back. I can sit here and say whatever but it is just as easy to show everyone. I can spin a yarn and say it is all brilliant or I can just get on the park and show you what my pace is like. I have not been in front of a speed gun but it feels alright.”Bresnan has actually only missed England’s most recent three Tests having previously played in Nagpur. But at the conclusion of that match, where he went wicketless for the second time in the India series, he had taken two wickets at 210 in his last four outings dating back to the start of the South Africa series.Tim Bresnan is hoping his early-season form for Yorkshire counts in his favour ahead of the first Test•Getty Images

His last telling contribution with the red ball – his one-day form had not quite suffered in the same way, with 10 overs proving more manageable – had been against West Indies, at Trent Bridge, where he took the Man-of-the-Match award for eight wickets. At that point in his career he had 52 wickets at 25.46 and his 13 Tests had all been England victories.But for him to plot a route back into the Test team for the first match of the season he will need to get past Steven Finn, who took six wickets in his last outing in Auckland, although those figures flattered him. Finn has not been at his best for Middlesex this season with seven wickets at 39.57 in three matches, which is one more appearance than either Broad or Anderson after the ECB made Finn available against Warwickshire.Just as these next few days are important for Bresnan, they are equally so for Finn. His Test record – 80 wickets at 29.60 – is far from poor, but he has yet to completely convince that he has found his stride. The work on his run-up has played a part and he was back to the longer version at Edgbaston last week, suggesting the switch has not gone entirely to plan.In Finn’s favour, when it comes to a head-to-head with Bresnan, is an impressive record at Lord’s (his home ground) where he has taken 25 wickets at 21.44 in four Tests. That included his maiden five-wicket haul against Bangladesh in 2010 and eight wickets in the match against South Africa last year in what was his most consistent Test appearance. Bresnan, by contrast, has five wickets at 66.00 from his three appearances at Lord’s.Yet, the fact that Bresnan is already back in the Test reckoning is a credit to his hard work which included a spell at the National Sports Centre at Bisham Abbey. Bresnan admitted he was not “deep thinker” about life, but conceded to a few uneasy thoughts before he had the operation after the one-day series in India.”A couple of hours before the operation you think this could go one or two ways,” he said. “I might never play for England or cricket again or I might be back better than ever. You have to weigh up that risk and then decide yes, put in the effort and get on with it again.”So far, that effort has been worth every hour of rehab and painful gym sessions. Now he aims to make life tough for a few of his team-mates.

Andrew Strauss retains the belief he can return to being a force in Test cricket despite again failing to convert two starts in Galle

Andrew McGlashan29-Mar-2012Andrew Strauss retains the belief he can return to being a force in Test cricket despite again failing to convert two starts in Galle as England slumped to a fourth straight defeat.Strauss contributed 26 and 27 in England’s two innings during their 75-run loss but insisted he feels in good form. He hasn’t scored a Test hundred since Brisbane at the start of the 2010-11 Ashes – now 16 Tests ago – and the pressure has been increased by the manner of his dismissals. In the first innings he tried to sweep a delivery that was too full and in the second whipped Rangana Herath to short midwicket when trying to go over the top.”At the moment it is frustrating me as much as anyone,” he said. “I’m hitting the ball nicely and feel in good form but you’re judged on your performances and I’ve not performed well enough. Hopefully I will put it right next week.”Sometimes it goes with the territory and you go through periods where you can’t kick on for whatever reason and then you get through it, release a barrier and you get some big scores in a row.”Strauss is now 35 but strongly resisted suggestions that time was catching up with his batting. “If you keep getting to 30 then I don’t think it is a terminal decline, unless you’re very unfit, which I don’t think is the case with me,” he said. “My job in the side is to score runs and I haven’t done that as much as I would have liked over the last 12 months or so, but I want to put it right next week.”He has only been dropped once during his Test career and that was when he missed the previous tour of Sri Lanka in 2007, having failed to recover from a difficult 2006-07 Ashes series. This time his position comes with the added weight of the captaincy but, understandably midway through a series, talk of his future was off the agenda.”Questions about my position are just not something I’m going to answer in the middle of the series. My focus is very much on winning the next game and it would be wrong to think of anything else.”Collectively, too, England continue to struggle and have posted 300 just once in four Tests this year. Again it was the first innings that proved really costly, slumping to 192 and conceding a 125-run lead to Sri Lanka. Strauss wanted to offer up something positive after Jonathan Trott’s second-innings hundred gave the team hope, but it wasn’t an easy task.”It is hard to say we’re making progress having lost four in a row,” he said. “I think individually people’s gameplans against spin have come on but we haven’t showed it out in the middle. If you want to win Test matches you need to get runs on the board and we haven’t done that. In the fourth innings you can understand the odd dismissal but we had less of an excuse in our first innings.”Another potential headache is an injury to Stuart Broad who was suffering from a tight right calf on the fourth day. He was clearly limping during his brief second innings but England are waiting to do a further assessment.Broad entered the Test having picked up an injury to his left ankle slipping on the boundary rope before the first warm-up match. He was passed as fully fit for the match but was slightly below his best, bowling eight no-balls – one of which cost England the wicket of Prasanna Jayawardene on the third day when Sri Lanka’s lead was a slightly more manageable 292.Edited by Alan Gardner