Stuart Broad forced Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews to nick another catch through to Bairstow and Mendis, on 53, was bowled by Anderson off the inside edge.
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England are braced for confirmation that Ben Stokes is to have a knee operation which will rule him out of the Investec Test series and Royal London one-day internationals against Sri Lanka.
Bairstow and opener Alex Hales started the day with England on 171-5, and they extended their sixth-wicket partnership to 139 runs before Hales went for 86, attempting to launch spinner Rangana Herath down the ground.
In reply, Sri Lanka lost Dimuth Karunaratne (0), Kaushal Silva (11) and Kusal Mendis (0) in the space of nine balls, and was reeling at 12-3 just before tea.
Luck was not on his side either when Mendis, who had also edged Anderson through the fingertips and over the head of James Vince at third slip on 23, became the first to escape Bairstow’s clutches six runs later.
Woakes, who took a career-best 9-36 against Durham at Edgbaston yesterday, would represent a like-for-like replacement given his ability with the bat for all that he would nearly certainly bat lower, below Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali at No8. While he is not Stokes – England have been looking for such a player since the retirement of Ian Botham – he is averaging 61 with the bat and 26.64 with the ball in this year’s county championship.
His second ball saw Mendis get a thin glance, with Bairstow failing to hold the hard legside chance.
“I don’t usually like comparing players, but you see glimpses of what Gilly used to do in Jonny’s performance for England in the Headingley Test against Sri Lanka”, added the former Australia fast bowler, who played worldwide cricket alongside free-scoring keeper Gilchrist.
Spinner Moeen Ali forced Dinesh Chandimal, on eight, to chop the ball on to his stumps.
England skipper Alastair Cook enforced the follow-on and Sri Lanka reached one without loss from two balls of their second innings, still a mammoth 206 runs behind, before bad light brought the close.
Mendis, whose innings was a mix of the streaky and the stylish, then clipped Anderson through midwicket for a boundary that saw him complete a 62-ball fifty including 10 fours.
“We got them 80 for five in the first innings, then we dropped a couple of catches and let them off the hook”.
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Anderson provided the ideal finish to the afternoon when he cleanly bowled Nuwan Pradeep for his 10 wicket.
