After two months of Ashes woe, England might have viewed a change of scene as a blessing, but they have simply swapped one unconquered frontier for another. They came into a series against Sri Lanka postponed since Covid on the back of 10 straight defeats overseas in the 50-over format, and 20 in their last 24 white-ball matches in Asia. Instead, he went onto the defensive, using his own darted off-spin and that of Dhananjaya de Silva to dry up the runs. England have never chased more than 240 to win an ODI in Sri Lanka and so even though the century stand by Joe Root and Ben Duckett set a platform, its construction was too slow. Two familiar faces in Troy Cooley and Carl Hopkinson have been welcomed back as bowling coach and fielding coach respectively this week.

Source: Daily Mail January 23, 2026 15:01 UTC