He had 51 from 48 balls, but a combination of bad light and very light rain would keep the players from the field for three hours either side of lunch. Sri Lanka have dropped their specialist spinner, Prabath Jayasuriya, so were not about to throw the ball to part-time tweakers before lunch as the game zipped away from them on the opening day.

Duckett was phlegmatic, saying that the players no longer have a say, and would simply follow the orders of the umpires – in this case Chris Gaffaney and Joel Wilson – but during that first break the England managing director of cricket, Rob Key, expressed his “frustration” at the situation and wondered what more the game could do to keep its participants on the field for longer.

“The way they were going about [it], playing very well it didn’t look like it was dark,” Key said on Test Match Special. “What you need is to have a proper look and some proper investment into what is dangerous.

“When full floodlights are on, how hard is it to see the ball? I don’t think we have ever done a study on that. It is frustrating. I am saying that as an administrator. As a player I would have said what are we doing out here?”

‘Get pink ball and carry on’

The former England captain Michael Vaughan bemoaned the speed with which players are taken from the field in his Telegraph Sport column on Friday, and again called for a change in regulations to give supporters more cricket to watch.

“What delivery have we seen in the last 15 minutes that has been a physical threat?” Vaughan said on TMS. “You go to a pink ball and carry on. Teams will have to accept they get unlucky.

“All these ideas, you’re not going to appease everyone. I just want to see them carry on.”

The timing could hardly have been worse for Test cricket at the end of a flat summer. Ticket prices, value for money and watchability in Test cricket have been in the spotlight this week, after England breezed to victory at Lord’s, which was less than half-full on the fourth day, with adult ticket prices starting at £95. The Oval Test, the last of the summer, is taking place after schools have gone back (meaning another thin crowd is expected on day four) and with autumn closing in, raising the possibility of delays throughout the game.

On Thursday evening, the closing stages of the Vitality Blast quarter-final between Northamptonshire and Somerset had taken place in heavy rain, but there was a determination to see the game to a natural conclusion and give a full house at Wantage Road as much entertainment as possible. Test cricket, with its dark red ball, is different, but not so different that it should not work harder to keep its crowds coming back.