This was worse than the UAE, much worse. Against Pakistan the collapses were just about explicable. It was not so difficult to understand the exasperation of the English batsmen, so out of kilter after two months off.
There the management were uneasy before the series began; they knew their batsmen were suffering from a contagion of lost confidence. This time after two fruitful warm-up matches the management were quietly confident.
There were other factors to hinder the batsmen in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The pitches were cloying; the bounce was low and skiddy; the ball turned sporadically and unpredictably. It was tough to hit the ball off the square. There was panic in the air because the batsmen did not know where they were going to score their runs.
Moreover, with no disrespect to Rangana Herath and Suraj Randiv, the opposition's spinners were of a higher quality in the UAE. Saeed Ajmal bamboozled, his doosra causing torment, Abdur Rehman fizzed the ball through the air with relentless accuracy, every delivery a potential lbw. But in Galle conditions were riper for run-scoring. The odd ball turned, but seldom viciously; the bounce was reliable just high enough to find the ever-expanding sweet spot of the modern bat. England rattled along in excess of four runs an over. Out of their total of 193, 136 runs came in boundaries.
At the end of a debacle of an innings Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar added 36 runs in no time. Half close the eyes and it might have been Gower (that's Anderson) in some dreamlike partnership with Yuvraj Singh (OK, that might be stretching it a bit. Let's say Usman Afzaal). Batting looked that easy. It won't be as easy when England have a second chance to bat.
Look down the card and only Alastair Cook and Ian Bell were dismissed with excellent deliveries. Cook got a conventional early swinger from Suranga Lakmal, an occupational hazard for an opener but a delivery he would expect to combat on a good day. Bell, who started like Victor Trumper, but ended up looking more like Victor Mildrew, aghast at the non-striker's end and yelling "I don't believe it" as another partner bade farewell, received a fine bail-trimmer from Herath.
Matt Prior and Samit Patel both misread the length of Herath deliveries so the bowler deserves some credit there as well, but the rest of the batsmen showed such a disinclination to hang around that Darwinian theory was thrown into question. England's batsmen may be the fittest but they were not intent upon survival in Galle on Tuesday.
Instead they were seduced into trouble – usually by Herath – like virgin soldiers. The most spectacular dismissal was that of Jonathan Trott, who collided with a celebrating Prasanna Jayawardene to find himself both down and out. The most infuriating were those that came from premeditated shots.
On this surface, where drives have skimmed so rapidly across the baked turf, premeditated sweeps were an unnecessary risk. Yet here was Andrew Strauss shuffling into position to sweep a Herath delivery before the bowler had let go of the ball. It is tough to sweep a half-volley; it is however quite straightforward to drive it with power.
The canny Mahela Jayawardene sensed his chance of a review. Strauss then dallied upon confirmation of his dismissal to talk to the umpires, presumably disgruntled that the Sri Lankans had delayed calling for their review until after a leg-bye had been signalled. Maybe he thought they were gaining some valuable evidence to which they were not entitled. It would make more sense for the England captain to turn his attention to why he should premeditate such a stroke.
Later Stuart Broad, just as he often did in the UAE, swept, missed (it was another premeditated shot to a half-volley) and was given out. As usual he sought a review and was duly sent on his way. I'm not sure Broad has ever successfully reviewed a decision against him. Like Strauss, Broad is an intelligent man, which makes his yearning to sweep so much so early in his innings so bewildering.
Between the innings David Saker, the bowling coach, could be spotted on the outfield. He was prowling and growling like a man betrayed. All winter his bowlers have succeeded nobly in their pursuit of 20 wickets only for their efforts to be undermined by the prolifigacy of all those batsmen with such wonderful Test records. "Plus ça change …" he may have been mumbling in his best Victorian.
Even so, those bowlers, back in the field again so rapidly, valiantly kept England in the game in a riveting final session of an enthralling match.