Root sides with Sri Lanka’s suspect spinner

KANDY, Sri Lanka: England captain Joe Root had words of sympathy for Sri Lanka spinner Akila Dananjaya who will go into the second Test on Wednesday (today) with his bowling action under investigation by cricket’s world body.

Root was questioned about Dananjaya as it was announced that England would keep the same team that hammered Sri Lanka in the first Test with Ben Stokes playing as number three batsman and Jonny Bairstow kept out despite being fit again.

Sri Lanka have insisted that the 25-year-old off-spinner Dananjaya is ready to play despite the International Cricket Council reporting him for his bowling in the first Test.“It is an unfortunate thing he has to deal with,” said Root.

“Ultimately for us we played him at Galle pretty well throughout the last game.“If you see anyone with a question mark by their action, you hope they get through and it doesn’t hamper their career. It is never nice to see.”

England’s unchanged team may mean Root and coach Trevor Bayliss want Ben Stokes to establish himself as a regular number three — a troublesome position for England.

Stokes, who batted at number five in the first Test, had been in competition with Jos Buttler for a boost up the order. Moeen Ali has fallen out of contention after scoring just three runs in two innings in the first Test.

Stokes has played 64 of his 85 Test knocks at number six. Bairstow, England’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batsman for the past three years, was believed to have recovered from ankle ligament damage suffered in the one-day series. But Ben Foakes’ stunning debut as stand-in made a change difficult.