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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry L" data-source="post: 17424713" data-attributes="member: 260809">Both England and Sri Lanka need to rebuild               <img src="http://www.espncricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/198200/198215.2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />              Angelo Mathews scored has maiden ODI hundred in India, but it was a rare high point for Sri Lanka              © BCCI                                   Enlarge                                                             Related Links                                News : <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-england-2014-15/content/story/802769.html" target="_blank">Kandamby recalled as Sri Lanka ring changes</a>                      Players/Officials:              <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-england-2014-15/content/player/8917.html" target="_blank">Moeen Ali</a>  |         <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-england-2014-15/content/player/11728.html" target="_blank">Alastair Cook</a>  |         <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-england-2014-15/content/player/49764.html" target="_blank">Angelo Mathews</a>          Series/Tournaments:              <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-england-2014-15/content/series/750619.html" target="_blank">England tour of Sri Lanka</a>          Teams:              <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/team/1.html" target="_blank">England</a>  |         <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/team/8.html" target="_blank">Sri Lanka</a>                    There must be some miscommunication somewhere. Each year, Sri Lanka line  up a tour around November, and almost invariably, the series is so  beset by rain that most matches go unfinished, and the remaining games  advantage the chasing side. With four such tours having taken place in  the last five years now, the only viable solution is clear: it is time  Sri Lanka's weather took stock of the cricket patterns in the country,  when it next schedules its monsoons.   So England have arrived to kick off their winter season, dodging  downpours like they were questions about Kevin Pietersen's book, and  pumping their words with the positivity they hope will shake up their  ODI cricket. Widely touted to flop at next year's World Cup, the  visitors do at least acknowledge that their game needs an overhaul.<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/8917.html" target="_blank"> Moeen Ali</a>  was bundled up the order for the warm-up match, and directed to launch a  full assault, while batting coach Mark Ramprakash has laid out hopes  that the rest of the top order embrace a little more panache themselves.   England are after ideas. They want to redesign the ponderous ODI cricket  they have stuck by for too long, into a nimbler, sleeker model that  will catapult them into that leading group of World Cup contenders.   On the surface, there is no better place to uncover that tactical gold  than in Sri Lanka. Cricket is the most popular sport on the island, but  thanks largely to a Civil War that drained the economy and shut an  entire swathe of the country out, Sri Lanka's talent pools are still  among the thinnest around. That they have made five major finals in the  last seven years (and two other semi-finals as well), is down more to  out-thinking opponents, than outplaying them.   England won't mind if a few of the ambushes Sri Lanka routinely set at  short cover, or the slow-chokes they apply to opposition chases, are  absorbed into England's own game. "Funky captaincy" has become a buzz  phrase in the<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/11728.html" target="_blank"> Alastair Cook</a>  v Michael Clarke Ashes era, but Mahela Jayawardene is the James Brown  of that movement, having so often conned batsmen out of their wickets,  rather than earned them. <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/player/49764.html" target="_blank">Angelo Mathews</a>  is a different kind of captain, but by dint of inheritance, the  tactical flourishes are still there. Game plans are loose to begin with,  then if things go awry, quickly reimagined.   It is fitting then, that Sri Lanka would have liked to be a little more  like England just a few weeks back, as well. They had had a clearly  laid-out pre-World Cup schedule that appeared to be a good mix of  match-practice and rest, but the India tour opened up on them like an  afternoon thunderstorm, and they were pelted with sixes off India bats  for two weeks.   Sri Lanka had departed for that tour aiming to experiment, rather than  to win the series, but conceding two totals over 350, an individual 264,  and suffering their worst ODI whitewash in history, will have dented a  few egos. The jettisoning of Nuwan Kulasekara, who had been a pillar of  the ODI attack for more than five years, is evidence that damage has  been sustained. A surprise tour is not the kind of situation England  will ever expect to find themselves in. There are many positives in Sri  Lanka's flexibility, but they are also always teetering a little close  to chaos.   That the selectors have <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-england-2014-15/content/story/802769.html" target="_blank">roped in some old hands</a>  is also the kind of conservative move, more often seen in the England  playbook. At 32, batsman Thilina Kandamby gets an ODI recall after three  years away from the top level, while others like allrounder Jeevan  Mendis have been reinstated after a long break, as well.   Sri Lanka know their batting has plenty of thrill-seeking pizzazz in  their three senior batsmen and Mathews, but what they need now are the  steady performers: batsmen who will hit a fifty off 70 balls every other  match. England may worry they play a stone-age version of the game, but  Sri Lanka would probably take a Geoffrey Boycott in the second opener's  position about now. In the last four innings put together, the men  batting opposite Tillakaratne Dilshan have managed eight runs. Mathews  has also made stability his goal for the series. By the seventh ODI, he  would ideally have liked his World Cup first XI to have emerged.   The cricket that Sri Lanka and England play usually stems from disparate  philosophies, they're barely playing the same sport. But in what may be  a damp series in the approach to the World Cup, each team is looking  for a little of what the other has got.              Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. <a href="http://www.twitter.com/andrewffernando" target="_blank">@andrewffernando</a></blockquote>

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