Immediately after the victory England named an unchanged squad for the third Test at Lord’s starting on 9 June, giving clarity to the players, and batsman Nick Compton in particular.
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Earlier, Alastair Cook became the first England batsman to score 10,000 Test runs.
Sri Lanka had made 475 all out in their second dig, thanks to a Dinesh Chandimal century.
After match figures of 8-94 in the second Test against Sri Lanka, England’s James Anderson has risen to number one in the ICC rankings.
England captain Alastair Cook became the youngest batsman to score 10,000 Test runs on the fourth day of the second Test against Sri Lanka on Monday.
With the boundary, Cook 31 years 157 days today – broke Sachin Tendulkar’s previous record.
However, given Cook has scored at a rate of around 1000 runs a year for the past decade, only a career-ending injury or a sharp decline in form could deny him the chance to surpass Tendulkar.
Victory in this match secured an unassailable lead for the host in the three-match Test series following their innings and 88-run win in the first Test at Headingley.
“It is a fantastic achievement and something that has been on his mind for the last few weeks”, Anderson said of Cook’s feat.
In reply, Sri Lanka collapsed to 101 all out, with Stuart Broad taking four for 40. Anderson is now 15 points clear off Broad and 13 points clear of Ashwin. There is always fault to be found, quibbles to be had, with the bowling rankings – but Anderson can be near-unplayable in English conditions and the promotion is reward for his summer so far in which the 33-year-old has taken 18 wickets in two Tests.
Anderson’s tally of 451 Test wickets places him sixth on the all-time leading Test wicket-takers list, some 68 scalps behind West Indies’ Courtney Walsh.
As for Cook, Bayliss knows from the evidence of the past 10 years he can simply anticipate more of the same.
The Indian great had reached the milestone in his 122nd Test. Cook achieved it in his 128th match.
“Even though we lost the series, there were lots of positives in last couple of days”, Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews said.
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“We showed our character in the second innings and have some positives to take to Lord’s”.
