England captain Joe Root is proud of the way his team adapted to conditions after they completed a three-nil Test series whitewash against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Monday.
Root’s team beat the hosts by 42 runs in the final Test to wrap up the series after winning the first Test in Galle by 211 runs and the second match by 57 runs in Kandy.
England adapted to the slow conditions in the subcontinent by deciding to play three frontline spinners while also making the decision to drop one of their experienced seamers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, during the series.
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Root said: “We’ve had to do things very differently here. It’s been amazing how much the ball has turned. So the most pleasing thing is how quickly we adapted to that. We’ve had to adapt and grow as a group.
“We’ve been brave. We’ve done things differently to how we have in the past, but that’s not frightened us.
“We really bought into that and played it to our advantage. We’ve got three wonderful spinners that complement each other very well, backed up very ably by some very good seam bowling
“It’s nice to know we don’t just rely on Anderson and Broad. We gave opportunities for young, less experienced guys to step up and show their worth. Those three spinners dovetailed really well and built pressure.”
Root urged his team to embrace the new way of doing things in the England team and that they will continued to select players for specifi conditions when playing overseas.
In 2019, England will tour the West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa while they will also be hosting the Ashes.
Root continued: “We’ve got to be open to doing things differently wherever we go. We’ve done things in a certain way in these conditions.
“But it will be different in the West Indies, different in South Africa and obviously very different in Australia next time we’re over there. That’s the one we really want to get right.
“But we’ve got some time to figure out what’s going to work for us and adapt our squad to exploit those conditions.
“It’s about being adaptable and we’ve shown we can do that. We’ve shown we are not a one-trick pony any more. And that should fill us with a huge amount of confidence going into future tours.”
