Sri Lanka bowl first as Stone, Kumara and Nissanka make comebacks

Toss Sri Lanka chose to bowl vs England

Sri Lanka opted to bowl on a sunny morning for the start of the second Test at Lord’s, with captain Dhananjaya de Silva hoping for some early assistance for his quicks as the tourists seek a way back into the series, trailing 1-0 with two to play.

“There is always swing in the first hour, so we’re going to take that chance,” Dhananjaya said, perhaps looking to a low-scoring game between England and West Indies at this ground last month. England captain Ollie Pope, however, confirmed that he would have batted under clear blue skies had he been given the choice.

Both sides had named their teams in the build-up to the match. England made one change from the XI that won by five wickets at Old Trafford, Olly Stone winning his first Test cap in more than two years after replacing the injured Mark Wood.

Sri Lanka opted to drop Kusal Mendis and Vishwa Fernando, with Pathum Nissanka back after a similar two-year absence and Lahiru Kumara joining the seam attack. There was also a change behind the stumps, with Nishan Madushka taking over from Dinesh Chandimal, after the latter was hit on the hand by Mark Wood at Old Trafford.

Of Sri Lanka’s hopes of a first Test win over England since 2014, Dhananjaya said: “Gameplan wise it will be the same [as the first Test] but we have to execute better than Manchester.”

England: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Olly Stone, 11 Shoaib Bashir

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Nishan Madushka (wk), 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kamindu Mendis, 8 Milan Rathnayake, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Asitha Fernando, 11 Lahiru Kumara

Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick