Test sides tend to have indifferent records when they begin tours in the subcontinent, so England must take theirs with them
Thirty years ago next month, after knocking at the ICC door for some considerable time, Sri Lanka were finally accorded full-member status and played their inaugural Test match, a one-off game in Colombo against Keith Fletcher's England side that had been struggling on a desperate six-Test tour of India which the home side won by taking the first Test and then shutting up shop.
With the novitiates first unable to cope with Derek Underwood and then John Emburey – who had a spell of five for five to finish them off – England won the match by seven wickets. It was not seen as a disaster for Sri Lanka, who, according to Wisden: "Did enough in their first Test to show they deserved elevation to full membership of the International Cricket Conference [as it was then known]".
That match has gained a significance in the light of England's disastrous start to the current series against Pakistan, in which, in Dubai, they lost the opening Test of three by 10 wickets, and, with the bat, played dismally to do so. For reprehensible as it may have been, and worthy of some deep post-match soul-searching within the England camp, it is not an unusual occurrence for them to fail to come up to scratch from the word go when dealing with teams from the subcontinent – Bangladesh excluded.
Since England beat India by an innings and 25 runs at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi in 1976, on the way to a comprehensive series win, they have played 18 further series, drawing four of the opening encounters, losing 12 and winning only two, each of those a one-off which, aside from Sri Lanka's debut (which given its provenance can almost be discounted), includes the Test played in Mumbai early in 1980 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Cricket Board, as England returned from an unsuccessful Ashes tour of Australia.
With the exception of Bangladesh, who have lost 31 and drawn five of 37 home matches, not one first-Test victory has contributed to a subsequently successful series. In other words, England's failure at the International Cricket Stadium last week, aberration as it may have been, was following a persistent trend for them.
The aforementioned Jubilee Test was a remarkable match, played by two teams just about out on their feet, India having played 16 Tests in seven months and England losing all three in Australia. From this came what is recognised as the greatest all-round performance the international game has seen, with Ian Botham, playing on a lack of sleep but not of bacchanalian pleasures, took six for 58 in India's first innings, made 114 in his only innings, and then took seven for 48 in the second innings. It ended India's 15-match unbeaten run.
Yet it is significant that for the match in Colombo, England had been playing cricket on the subcontinent for three months, so were at least used to the conditions, while the Mumbai match followed several months in Australia, so they had at least been playing.
The 1976 Delhi win, however, was more relevant to the current situation, in that it involved a considerable period of preparation, with a week's practice followed by four first-class matches – in Pune, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Jullundur – leading into the opening Test, and subsequently a further first-class match between each of the five Tests (and not a single one-day international, either during or after the series, despite there having already been a World Cup).
Contrast this then with the current tour, in which the England players were allowed two months' rest from competitive cricket – and more for some who were not involved in the ODI series in India – following last summer's series, before arriving in the UAE shortly after new year.
With the intensity of touring now, Tests and ODIs coming in series heaped upon series, there is little respite, and certainly none that will be coming the way of England players in the next couple of years. It is pretty much full-on from hereon in.
So there has to be a balance, and a difficult decision was made by the coach Andy Flower with a view to the longer term. The time available to them before the first Test would allow for no more than two three-day matches, in which not just to get used to local conditions, which they did to an extent by playing the games on the same pitch in order to experience one with appropriate Test-match wear, but actually to reacquaint themselves with the techniques and disciplines of red-ball cricket and competitive cricket.
Before their last overseas Test series, England played full-on, red-blooded first-class games in Perth, Adelaide and Hobart. Ultimately it held them in good stead.
Scheduling nowadays generally precludes time for such preparation. England will arrive in Sri Lanka 10 days after leaving the UAE, and will play two matches only. Whether the time spent in the emirates will have grooved them sufficiently to be able to carry that previous playing experience remains to be seen. But there is a general trend for visiting teams to struggle in their opening matches, and not only England.
Overcoming this, to go into the opening exchanges at full velocity, will be another challenge for all teams.