No honeymoon period for Liam Plunkett as he returns for England duty

Liam Plunkett has been on many tours as an England cricketer but none have involved as much agonising, acted as a proxy-honeymoon or been prepared for in an indoor baseball facility 30 minutes outside Philadelphia where he has had to bring his own balls, bowl at mannequins, measure out the 22 yards of a pitch himself and borrow stumps from a local cricket club. Oh, and he missed the first fortnight to get married.

When the dates of this tour were flipped by the Sri Lankan authorities so that the ODIs were in October and the Tests in November, Plunkett was left with a quandary over whether to ditch carefully laid wedding plans, or miss the first three ODIs.

He knew the risks attached to sitting out – England’s ODI side is fiercely competitive – but made the admirable life-over-work choice and pressed ahead with the wedding, which took place last Saturday as England played the second match of the series and Plunkett’s replacement, Olly Stone, made quite an impression.

The captain Eoin Morgan, who moved his own wedding to November, gave the decision his blessing. In large part, Plunkett’s decision not to do the same came because his wife Emeleah is American, and around 70 guests had already booked to fly over. “A lot of people had booked flights and I wasn’t interested in paying them back,” he joked in Kandy today. Emeleah is here too. “I got married and couldn’t just say 'cheers thanks for being my wife! See you in a month,'” he said.

Before the wedding in the Cotswolds – and having spent time out injured towards the end of the season and being between counties – Plunkett opted to spend six weeks with his Emeleah in her hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania, which brought its own problems when looking to prepare for the rigours of international cricket.

“I found an indoor centre,” he said. “It was like a kids [baseball] diamond, pretty much big enough area to get my full run up in, no one was watching me, the mannequins pretty much resemble a batter.. they are as big as me and shaped like they are about to hit you out of the park. You had stumps from a local club, so I could practise my skills, practise my yorkers, it's about getting my overs up.

“I didn't want to come here and be bare and out of shape. I did it three times a week, I took six new white balls and they got beaten up pretty quickly. I enjoyed it. I knew I had to be ready straight away.

“I got the roll on measure stick [to measure the pitch]. If I had known that facility was available I would have been doing that the last 10 years every time I went there. I was using an outdoor field with sand that wasn't good for my calves, but then I found this two weeks in so a month before I got my overs in. It's like astroturf, it was perfect. I did some throwing too because you can't turn up with the standard of England fielding and end up pulling your arm out.”

Plunkett was well aware that, even as one of England’s most established and experienced players, he was taking a significant risk by allowing another bowler an opportunity. Olly Stone impressed in the second match of the series, and Tom Curran the third. At 33 and having played no cricket for more than two months, his body and build-up needs managing so he is unlikely to play in tomorrow’s fourth match, but should return on Tuesday in Colombo.

Plunkett believes that the early years of his career – when he was not such a fixture in the side – have prepared him to battle for a spot if needed. He has developed a superb record for England, with 114 wickets in 73 matches and a strike-rate of 30. His work in the middle overs is regularly cited by Morgan as the skill England struggle most to replace.

“I think England know what I can bring to the game, and if I don’t get the nudge I will graft hard,” he said. “People forget for the first seven years of my England career, I didn’t play, I was 12th man the whole time. I know how to deal with the situation… It’s nice to have some credit in the bank, but if someone comes in and gets four or five then it’s hard to say no to them.