Rachael

There's a lot in what you say and It's hard to disagree with any of it, and I certainly agree that the sub-continent is generally not a bowler friendly place. However, having said that, if Sri Lankas bowlers can take wickets on it them so should Englands, despite the fact that Englands batsmen conspired at times to make it woefully easy for the Sri Lankans to bowl them out.

As Vaas said in interview, "I put the ball in the right areas and got my rewards..." admittedly assisted by some 'rabbit hutch' batting. The key words there were 'right areas and rewards' not something that Englands bowlers really acheived is it?

That simply goes to show that if you do put the ball on the right length and on the right line and consistently enough, you will get results as Vaas ably showed. Sure, there's a huge difference in the mentality of the batsmen and winning the toss, conceeding a fairly significant declared first innings score in a game you have to win isn't really going to help them too much and we all know that Englands batsmen are prone to collapse under such situations as history tells us.

Why do you think India, with their batting heavy line up have traditionally (at least up until very recently) been atrocious away from their beloved flat sub-continental wickets? I'd put it to you that it's because their bowlers can't bowl on wickets outside of the sub-c, the same problem as England currently have but in reverse, and their batting line up has been prone to collapse in precisely the same way that Englands does for precisely the same reasons, but that doesn't make Indias batting lineup weak does it?

So, sorry, I smply don't buy into the view that on sub-c pitches you simply wait for batsman mistakes, you have to create those mistakes by good, wily, cunning pressure bowling and that involves putting the ball consistently in the right areas and fooling the batsman into making a mistake, because some batsmen (Jaywardene and Sangakarra spring to mind) won't make those mistakes unless you force them to. It's the same principle the world over, it just requires more patience and consistency in the sub-continent and certainly the bowling of the right line and length!

Englands bowlers have been spoilt by the lush green tops they get in the UK where the ball swings and seams nicely and they get an awful lot of assistance off the pitch, you get none in the sub-c and that simply means you have to be more accurate in where you put the ball - a discipline Englands current bowlers simply do not possess.