By the close, England were indebted to their rookie keeper, Jamie Smith  who justified his promotion to No. 6 with a hard-earned 72 not out, his third half-century in five innings since taking over from his Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes at the start of the summer. Harry Brook  added another fifty of his own as England recovered from a dicey 125 for 4 to close on 259 for 6, with a slender lead of 23 in the bank.

As had been the case throughout the West Indies series earlier in the summer, the impression after two days of action is that England should yet close out this contest with some ease, but the quality and spirit of the visitors’ bowling has forced them to graft with rather more diligence than might have been the case in previous incarnations of the Bazball era. Asitha in particular was superb throughout his 14 overs, spread across three key spells, including an incisive mid-innings bout of reverse-swing that belied the dank conditions.

After sweating under the covers for several hour during a rainy morning in Manchester, the Old Trafford pitch was ripe for seam bowling when play finally got underway at 1.15pm, and Asitha was primed to cash in. With his bustling approach and a commitment to a full length, he posed problems from the outset, under still-dense cloud cover and with the floodlights in full beam.

His performance went into overdrive from the first ball of his second over, when Dan Lawrence was pinned on the pad and given out lbw by umpire Paul Reiffel. Although that decision was successfully overturned, with the ball shown to be skimming over the bails, the information was stored away and perfectly processed by the bowler.

Two balls later, and now with Ben Duckett on strike, Asitha fired the ball in a good two feet fuller, and was this time the successful reviewee, with the ball shown to be both pitching on and hitting leg stump as Duckett was turned inside-out on his attempted flick across the line.

And in his very next over, Asitha served up the piece de resistance of his new-ball spell, an exceptional wobble-seam delivery, pitching half a foot fuller than the Lawrence ball, and straightening off the pitch to smash into the top of Ollie Pope’s off stump. England’s captain was gone for 6, and at 40 for 2 in the ninth over, England had a bit of a rebuild to undertake.

Root is no stranger to skinny top-order scorelines, of course, and as he bedded in for the long haul, it was Lawrence who initiated England’s counterattack, with a brace of forceful whips through the leg side as Asitha strayed in length. But, having scored just four of his 30 runs through the off side, his vulnerability in the channel was superbly exploited by Vishwa Fernando, who nicked him off after a change of ends, using the breeze from the James Anderson End to push a lifter across his bows from his left-arm angle.

Despite the conditions, Sri Lanka were able to find some appreciable reverse-swing off a typically abrasive Old Trafford pitch, meaning that Root and Brook had to be on their mettle even as their 58-run stand clipped along at more than five an over. Milan Rathnayake, Sri Lanka’s first-day hero, was picked off for three fours in an over as he strained for that swinging full length, but it was Asitha’s return to the attack that would prise the most vital wicket of the day.

Root had reached 42 from 56 balls in another understated display of touch and timing when he was undone in expert fashion, climbing into a wider line from Asitha while still playing for the inswing that had been the feature of his over to that point. This ball, however, held its line and skidded straight on, and Dinesh Chandimal scooped up the low edge to leave England wobbling at 125 for 4.

Brook, however, kept the foot down in his familiarly forceful manner, driving with heavy timing whenever the ball was over-pitched, and working the gaps well, with Sri Lanka’s field still veering towards the defensive given England’s reputation for boundary-hunting. He duly rattled along to a 59-ball half-century, his 14th in just 25 Test innings, and if it was beginning to feel as though something special would be needed to dislodge him, then Jayasuriya obliged shortly after tea.

Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner had been diligent without being threatening for much of his day’s work, when out of the blue, he served up something unplayable: a perfectly pitched ripper that gripped and bounced on middle and leg to clip the top of off. Brook could only blink in astonishment – as, indeed, would Chris Woakes, some 18 overs later, when he fell in near-identical fashion, to almost the only other spinning delivery to deviate from the straight all day.