Anderson said that the lack of preparation time and warm-up matches is ‘not ideal’,
James Anderson thinks that Sri Lanka may have a “slight advantage” going into their Test series against England after this month.
With Sri Lanka playing a two-Test series in South Africa and England’s red-ball experts having not played since August, Anderson assumes his side’s planning for this series is “not ideal”.
Rather than the period of acclimatization which would usually introduce such a series, England has had to glad themselves with developments in a large marquee at the national performance center in At Loughborough. They will also look into the first Test, which starts on 14th January, without playing a competitive workout match.
England’s touring party currently pieces a quarantine period in particular hotel rooms in Hambantota. Subject to further negative tests, planned to be carried out on Tuesday morning, they will resume training that afternoon very quickly.
“The whole situation is not ideal for us,” Anderson claimed. “We have not got a long preparation time period for this series and don’t have a lot of practice for the first Test, so it’s slightly uncommon in that respect.
England's James Anderson thinks that Sri Lanka will have a 'slight advantage' heading into the #SLvENG Test series.https://t.co/YtnEmOBNLM pic.twitter.com/hP5kqm5JFK
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) January 4, 2021
“We just have to build the best of it, hit the ground running if and when we get out of quarantine. He also told that It’s not going to be ideal and we know Sri Lanka has been playing Test cricket which maybe gives them a slight advantage. It’s something we are going to have to cope with as well we can and be correct on the money.”
How much of a benefit Sri Lanka actually has is open to dispute. They just played 3-Tests in 2020 and haven’t played one at home since August 2019. They lost the first Test in South Africa by an innings – their first international match in 9-months and have admitted the first-innings lead of 145 runs in the second.
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