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Fear for England is spinners' struggles in Sri Lanka are snapshot of what awaits in India - they need Adil Rashid's X-factor

Jack Leach bowling
Jack Leach bowling

There was a revealing moment in the last throes of Sri Lanka’s innings on the second afternoon in Galle. No 11 Asitha Fernando, who had scored four runs in his four Test innings and has a first-class average of 4.6, was on strike on nought, giving England the prospect of a whole over to attack him.

Dom Bess was two overs into his spell, in sweltering conditions of the ilk that could have been designed to neuter England’s seamers. The second new ball was fully 55 overs old. It was the worst time for England’s quicks to bowl.

And yet Joe Root reacted to Fernando’s presence on strike by whisking Bess out of the attack. Instead, he brought on Sam Curran. With Mark Wood already midway through a spell, England now had pace at both ends.

Root shouldn’t have felt compelled to rely on pace alone to snare the final Sri Lankan wicket. Sri Lanka, after all, is the Test nation in which spinners have bowled the highest proportion of overs in first-class cricket since 2015, and seamers the least. Yet Root’s decision was completely understandable in the context of what he had seen in Sri Lanka’s innings. In 384 deliveries between them, England’s spin pair of Bess and Jack Leach conceded 195 runs, bowled only seven maidens and didn’t take a single wicket. In England’s reply, Lasith Embuldeniya needed 19 deliveries to take two (see video below).

For a sense of how disappointing this display was you need to go back to to March 2001, the last time in a Test innings in Sri Lanka that seamers had shared all 10 wickets. For all the wonders of Jimmy Anderson’s 6-40, that he had to bowl 29 overs was also an indictment of the lack of support from England’s spin pair.

In 2018, England’s spin trio of Leach, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid shared 48 wickets to author a spectacular 3-0 series victory in Sri Lanka.

Of that trio, only Leach has appeared on this tour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that health issues and bubble life limited him to two first-class games in 2020, Leach has not matched his 2018 performances, lacking control and dropping short too often. Compared to his bowling in Sri Lanka in 2018, on this tour Leach is bowling markedly quicker - 53mph rather than 50mph - is getting fewer false shots and is finding a good line and length less. Yet, even if he has not been at his best, Leach could justifiably claim to have outbowled Bess so far this series: that he has been entrusted with 27 overs more than Bess is a better indication of how they have bowled than their averages.

Dom Bess bowling in Sri Lanka
Dom Bess bowling in Sri Lanka

But the series has emphasised how much England are missing the other two members of their 2018 spin trio. Despite Adil Rashid not having played a first-class game since his last Test in January 2019, England wanted him to make a Test return this winter. Rashid said that his shoulder was not up to it.

While Rashid has yet to make good on his potential in Test cricket, his last stint in the five-day game, in 2018/19, gave a hint of his capabilities. In nine Tests, Rashid took 22 wickets at an average of 34.7, taking a wicket every 58 balls. He played a crucial role in the 3-0 win in Sri Lanka, taking 12 wickets alongside 113 very handy lower-order runs. For all that Rashid’s control was imperfect, his leg spin could be accommodated within England’s multifaceted attack: England won seven of his nine Tests in this run.

Aged 32, Rashid is now bowling better than ever in white-ball cricket, combining improved accuracy with sharp turn and a treacherous googly (see video below). Yet there is every chance that he will never play a Test again. That would be a loss to English cricket. Even if Rashid was not suited to being the sole spinner in an attack, he would be a highly attractive option when conditions demand multiple spinners.

Like Rashid, Moeen was unavailable for a period in Test cricket, with his loss of a red ball central contract in 2019/20 contributing to his decision. Happily, he is now back, only to have been ruled out of the last two Tests after contracting Covid-19.

English cricket’s preoccupation with the Ashes, in which he has a terrible record, perhaps obscures how effective a Test spinner Moeen has been. Graeme Swann is the sole English spinner since Derek Underwood retired 39 years ago to take more than Moeen’s 181 Test wickets - and there have been five Test hundreds too. If Moeen has not always been consistent in his Test career, he has been a match-winner: he took 25 wickets in four Tests at home to South Africa in 2017, 12 wickets in two Tests to clinch the Pataudi Trophy in 2018 and 18 wickets in Sri Lanka last time.

Moeen is also a markedly more aggressive off-spinner than Bess. He is a sharper turner of the ball, allowing him to challenge both edges of the bat. The upshot is that he simply poses a bigger threat: Moeen takes a wicket every 61 balls in Test cricket, but Bess every 78.

For Joe Root and England, the abiding fear is that the spinners’ struggles were a snapshot of what awaits in India. When England’s team take the field in Chennai, Moeen will surely be among them. England may wish Rashid could be there too.