Woakes ready to deliver away from comforts of home

Seamer’s average abroad is more than double but his experience will be vital on winter tours

- Malik Ouzia

FOR half of his first day living out the International Cricket Captain video game he will no doubt have played in his youth, Ollie Pope was forced to do little more than hit 'simulate innings', sit back and watch the magic unfold.

Things got a little trickier into the afternoon sessions, when half-centuries from Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake led a Sri Lankan fightback and gloomy conditions left England's stand-in skipper restricted to bowling spin from both ends.

Still, having lost the toss, turfing out the opposition for 236 and reaching the close no wickets down and 22 on the board marked a decent first day in the post.

For that flying start, England's 82nd and freshest Test captain owed much to Chris Woakes, whose double-wicket maiden removed opener Nishan Madushka and regular English scourge Angelo Mathews to leave the tourists in tatters at six for three with the series half-an-hour old.

Later, he added the scalp of Kamindu Mendis to take his tally since finally replacing the retiring James Anderson as attack leader this summer to 13 wickets in five innings at an average of just 17.46.