Joe Root advised his England side to “stay hungry” after giving themselves the perfect start to a big year with a 2-0 series win in Sri Lanka.

England walked out on day four of their second Test in Galle with everything still to do in a game but left the field deep in the evening session with a six-wicket victory under their belts.

To get there the tourists needed to be ruthless with the ball and resilient with bat and found a handful of key performers to carry them over the line.

Sibley falls firmly into that category, having emerged from scores of four, two and zero to play his part in a memorable win.

He was overheard on the stump microphone during his innings telling wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella he was unsure whether he would hold his place in India given his run of form and carried that honesty into his post-match interview.

He told the host broadcasters: “I’ve had a bit of a stinker in this series. I started to doubt myself a little bit before today. It was nice to spend some time at the crease and give myself a chance.

“Watching Joe Root makes you feel a little inadequate to be quite frank! He’s made it look so easy.

“It was just a case of believing, and trying not to doubt myself too much even though I’d had three failures to the same bowler (Lasith Embuldeniya).

“I was trying to spend 20 balls, 30 balls to try to get into the innings a little bit and build the partnership, and take the focus off myself.”