In the second Test at Lord’s, England defeated Sri Lanka with the wickets of Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka following their unlikely target of 483 on Day 3. The Three Lions had one more over to bowl, but as the light went out, Ollie Pope, the stand-in captain, was unable to get his pacers back into the attack and he and his colleagues chose to leave.
Eoin Morgan questioned the choice, arguing that England could have carried on using their spinners instead of their pacers because the pitch was giving off a lot of turn and bounce and that they had nothing to lose. “I believe that this is a dubious choice. That is because it is dark, which is the only explanation for the last hour or so.
The seamers are prohibited from bowling because it poses a risk to everyone involved, Eoin Morgan stated on.
“You might be thinking, ‘Jeez, the last place I want to be is out there with the bat in hand, confronting anybody,’ if you’re sitting in Sri Lanka’s changing room. It is a lose-lose circumstance. I completely appreciate your concern over the state of the ball, but Shoaib Bashir, England’s premier fingerspinner, needs to bowl. The sphere is rotating and rebounding. I disagree with the decision. You have two or three new balls, runs to play with, and everything is on your side. And yet you’re seated in the changing area,” stated the former captain.
A similar incident happened in the opening Test match at Old Trafford, when Pope chose to keep bowling his spinners. But the strategy failed when Milan Rathnayake scored a half century on his international debut and Bashir and Joe Root gave up runs.
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But this time, Morgan believes that England could have kept bowling spin since they were clearly winning the match. On Day 4, the hosts would try to finish things off and win the series at home once more. Day 3 ended with a 53/2 score for the tourists, who were led by unbeaten players Dimuth Karunaratne and nightwatchman Prabath Jayasuriya. Two more days of play remain until Sri Lanka can win; they still need 430.
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