Mark Butcher has questioned Sri Lanka's tactics after they conceded a sizeable first-innings lead in the first Test against England at Manchester despite having the game in the balance at the start of the third day’s play.

After debutant Milan Rathnayake's 135-ball 72 resurrected Sri Lanka from an early collapse to a fighting 236, the tourists fought back by picking up six wickets, as England went to stumps at 259-6 after Day 2. The visitors had the chance to wrap up the remaining wickets in the morning to ensure the slender lead didn’t get out of hand. However, a 148-ball 111 from Jamie Smith, aided by some vital lower-order contributions, frustrated them. England went on to score 358 runs, stretching their lead to 122.

Sri Lanka unknowingly tried to start the day with pacer Asitha Fernando, not realising he had bowled last yesterday. Left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya bowled the first over instead, resulting in a delay in bringing in shin pads and helmets for close fielders.

Ten minutes later than originally planned, Asitha eventually bowled the third over of the day, starting with a floaty full delivery that was driven for four and conceding ten runs.Two overs later, Asitha was replaced by Jayasuriya once more and only returned 15 overs later when Sri Lanka took the new ball, taking 1-24 in a two-over spell.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Mark Butcher didn't mince his words while questioning the tourists' approach. He felt the tourists were clueless and came unprepared on a day that could have decided the fate of the match.

"I cannot understand for the life of me, I really can't, how at the start of a day's play you do not know exactly what you're doing," Butcher said. "Day three, huge day, you're still very much in the Test match, you've hung in there for two days and showed a lot of character. How do you not know, every single man on that field know, exactly what is going to be happening first ball. Who's bowling, what fields we are going to have, what our plan is in terms of keeping Smith perhaps away from the bowling or putting him under pressure when he starts again, and that just completely blows my mind," Butcher said.

He added: "I don't understand how a professional Test cricket team cannot be ready to do that on a day such as today. And that's pretty much my rant over because it's just, it's unfathomable that they wouldn't have had an idea as an absolute collective, not just the captain, you know, there are coaches that have millions of backroom staff for every cricket team at the moment. How they've gone out there unprepared and ready to go and go hard at England this morning, I will never know."

After conceding the lead, Sri Lanka spiralled further down, losing opener Nishan Madhushka and No.3 Kusal Mendis for ducks for just a run in the second innings.

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