Morgan pleased his positive approach paid off

Morgan has been lauded for his performances in the limited overs arena but, after only winning himself a place in the Test side for this series, still has some question marks over his five-day career.

The Irishman went some way to convincing any doubters yesterday though as he produced a responsible innings of 79 after he had walked to the crease with his side 130-4.

“It was an in-between position (when he came in to bat). But I stuck with my natural game, I tried to be positive especially against the spinners,” he said.

“The ball did nip around a little in the morning so I had to be watchful there at the start. I looked to pace myself and get myself in. It gets easier as you get in and then I tried to be positive once I was in.

“It is my game in one-day cricket and I’m trying to adapt it to Test cricket.”

Morgan combined with Alastair Cook to put on 171 for the fifth wicket as England took back control of the opening day.

Cook fell four runs short of his century and while Morgan also departed in the final session, Matt Prior’s brisk unbeaten 73 helped them reach the close on 342-6.

“To go out and bat the way we did and be positive towards the end, it leaves us in a good position,” Morgan added. “The pitch is a lot slower than we thought, so there is a lot of hard work ahead of us.

“We’re in a good position and hopefully we can push on.”

England added 177 runs for the loss of Cook and Morgan in an extended final session and Sri Lanka batting coach Marvan Atapattu admitted his side had disappointingly let their early advantage slip.

“We won the first two sessions. The last session we had to bowl 36 overs and that wasn’t good,” he said. “There was a bit of a lack of discipline and experience.

“Most of our fast bowlers are only in their early days in Test cricket. Hopefully they will put it right once they look at the video of the way they bowled.”

Atapattu denied the decision to bowl on a sunny Lord’s day was made to protect the tourists’ batsmen after their final-day capitulation in Cardiff.

“Not at all,” he added. “It is not a matter of hiding batsmen. We have three of the batsmen who are in the top-10 of the ICC rankings, so that’s not the case.”