For the second match in succession England will play on a new Test ground and that brings many virtues. Here on the outskirts of a city that sits alongside the Bay of Bengal is a stadium that has been polished for the grand occasion.
Beyond the neat, symmetrical stands, the verdant, tree-lined hills rise up spectacularly. We might be in Pallekele just outside Kandy or somewhere leafy in the Caribbean. The practice facilities are spacious and of the highest quality, just as they were in Rajkot, while the rest of the grassland outside the ground has been chalked with the precision of the Wimbledon courts to designate the parking spaces for the VVIPs, who will be coming to the Test match on Thursday.
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