There was an audible sigh of relief when England and Sri Lanka took the field at the Headingley Stadium in Leeds on Thursday. For all the excitement that Twenty20 and the Indian Premier League provide, there still remains something oddly comforting about the sight of two teams, dressed in pristine white, stepping out in the morning to begin five days of good old-fashioned Test cricket.

Gone were batsman shimmying around the pitch, trying to play the paddle and the reverse-scoops. Back again were the ball on a good length, the well-judged leave, and the defensive block. Test cricket was back.

And no one better to remind viewers of the primacy of Test cricket than James Anderson. After England had been bowled out for 298 in their first innings by an inexperienced Sri Lankan team, Anderson stepped up to the bowling crease. Under typically overcast English conditions, he showed that swing still has a huge role to play in the game, with Sri Lanka's greenhorn batsmen having no clue to where Anderson was zipping it around. They crumbled to 91 all out with Anderson ending with figures of 5/16.