England Cricket 
/ Ed Hawkins / 29 March 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Rangana Herath enjoys himself as Sri Lanka take the first Test
"England have lost four Tests in a row now because they cannot defend spin. And the [3.3] that Sri Lanka make it five in Colombo looks a steal, particularly with Stuart Broad a doubt with an ankle injury."
It's now four losing Tests in a row for England and spin has destroyed them each and every time. It will surely be another defeat in Colombo next week, says Ed Hawkins
England have found out in Galle that they have no quick fix for psychological turmoil. Beaten by 75 runs, the batsmen will be queuing up to have a lie down on the coach, and not just because of the soaring mercury.
It was as alarming a defeat as each of the three to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Actually scrub that, it was far worse. At least in that series England could claim to be rusty after a long break and to have been bamboozled by the world class spin of Saeed Ajmal.
This time their preparation was good and we were told they had worked hard on ironing out the technical deficiencies which Ajmal had exposed. So why were England so vulnerable to the spin pair of Rangana Herath and Suraj Randiv?
Herath is a wily campaigner but he has been compared to Raj Maru, the former Hampshire spinner, in stature and style. As for Randiv, he has an elegant action but he has only played six Tests.
A batting line-up as experienced as England's should not be struggling against such a pair. Between them they took 18 of their 20 wickets. All ten of the second-innings wickets fell to the twirling pair as England lost their last five wickets for just 12 runs. They are harrowing statistics which will haunt the tourists long into a humid Sri Lankan night.
There can be no doubt that they are mentally shot. As soon as a spinner skips into his run-up, an England batsman is a startled rabbit in the headlights, just waiting for the mortal blow.
This is a damning indictment on the work done by Graham Gooch, the batting coach, and Andy Flower, the team director. They are not psychologists but they are supposed to soothe the mind with technical remedies.
All Gooch has done is told them to sweep, it would appear. That is like treating a cancer with a herbal punch. Five England batsmen fell sweeping in the match. It is a shot which must be cut out.
"In truth we made too many mistakes to win the game," Andrew Strauss, the captain, said.
"We left ourselves too much to do, mainly with our batting in the first innings. In international cricket there's no room for mistakes.
"We had a great position in the first innings to go big but we all felt too softly. We probably didn't get the balance between attack and defence right."
If only it was as simple as that. England have lost four Tests in a row now because they cannot defend spin. And the [3.3] that Sri Lanka make it five in Colombo looks a steal, particularly with Stuart Broad a doubt with an ankle injury. For England, the torture may seem like it will never end. They may already be worrying about going to India at the end of the summer.
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