Sri Lanka would have been tempted to shunt him up the order for this match, given not only his form, but the fact that he bats in the top and middle order frequently for domestic sides. But they will leave him where he is, for now, de Silva said.

"I think if Kamindu plays well down there there's no reason to change what he's doing and put him in trouble. If he's scoring there, it's good for his career as well. In the future, maybe we will talk to him, about his plans as well and see what changes we can make. But right now we're thinking of him as a No. 7."

The remainder of the batting order, even those on their third tour of England, have struggled badly against England's seamers meanwhile. A lot of this has to do with their discipline, de Silva said.

"They [England] have a lot of control in addition to their experience. They have great control of line and length and we don't get many loose balls in England. We need to be prepared for that and our plans have to take that into account. That's just what you get in England. In the two previous matches they didn't let us execute our plans. That's why they were successful."

"It's not that our plans against him didn't work - he just very quickly recognised what we were trying to do and countered it. That's what world class players do, and that's why he scored runs. We've hopefully come up with something now that he won't expect."