Big picture: Can Sri Lanka test injury-hit England?
And now we return to our regular programming… After three weeks of bright lights, big city action in the Hundred, England’s men resume Test commitments with a three-match series against Sri Lanka. Which is the bigger deal is arguable, of course. Test cricket might still be the main economic driver in this part of the world but the ECB’s hopes for a significant injection of cash through its marque white-ball competition, and a low-profile summer for the longest format, mean the runes are harder to read than usual.
Can Sri Lanka, whose last Test engagement outside the subcontinent came almost 18 months ago, provide more of a contest than West Indies, who were soundly beaten 3-0 inside just ten days of cricket last month? Should their ability to compete – or otherwise – be taken as a marker for the health of Test cricket as a whole? Could the absence of Ben Stokes, who suffered a torn hamstring during his first stint playing in the Hundred since 2021, leave England’s rejigged Test team more vulnerable than they might otherwise have been?
Certainly, the evidence for Sri Lanka springing a surprise is thin on the ground. Although they have a 100% win record in Test matches this year (and currently sit above England on the World Test Championship table), the last of their three fixtures was in Bangladesh in March. Their only tour match in the build-up to Old Trafford saw them defeated by an inexperienced England Lions side, having been bundled out for 139 in the first innings. And while a rare chance to play in England in late summer offers the enticing prospect of warmer weather and worn surfaces for their spinners to exploit, the forecast for the first Test in Manchester is as grim as anything faced on previous trips to chilly northern outposts in May.
Add to that a record that has seen Sri Lanka lose seven of their last eight Tests against England, with more than ten years elapsing since their last win – albeit a famous performance in which three members of the current squad participated – and you might be left fearing the worst.
Key to their chances of competing, most likely, will be the ability of the batters to put runs on the board. Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s interim head coach and a Bazballer before the term was invented, enjoyed plenty of success in England and can call on the expertise of Ian Bell, the former England batter brought in as batting coach for this tour. Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal will bring the experience of tours in 2014 and 2016, while Dhanajaya de Silva has a solid Test pedigree that has only been enhanced since taking on the captaincy earlier this year (average: 56.20).
The squad is well stocked with seam options, with Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando both possessing county experience, while only two spinners – Nathan Lyon and R Ashwin – have taken more wickets than slow left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya since his debut in 2022. The fact that Jayasuriya has taken 63 at 24.28 at home, compared to eight at 57.25 away, gives a sense of the challenge to adapt that the tourists will nevertheless face.
In their favour is the fact that, all of a sudden, they are set to face an England team that looks strikingly different. The loss of Zak Crawley to a fractured finger suffered during the third West Indies Test three weeks ago was then compounded by Stokes’ torn hamstring, meaning that England’s XI at Old Trafford will feature both a first-time Test opener, in Dan Lawrence, and an untried captain, with Ollie Pope’s previous experience limited to a handful of England warm-ups and games for Surrey.
Stokes will still be around the changing room to provide leadership but the absence of the architect of Bazball on the field is bound to have an effect – and not just in shortening the batting order. With Matthew Potts named as Stokes’ replacement ahead of Jordan Cox, bringing the Durham seamer only his second cap since the summer of 2022, it means a shuffle up the order for each of Jamie Smith – who impressed so much batting at No. 7 in his debut series against West Indies – Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson.
The unexpected disruption, with England having also called up Olly Stone after Dillon Pennington picked up an injury in the Hundred, adds to the sense that this might not be such a straightforward assignment – particularly if Sri Lanka, who are unbeaten in six London Tests going back to 1998, can emerge from this week unscathed. For some, the fact they have the opportunity to perform in a three-Test series in England at the height of summer for the first time is something in itself to be savoured. Just don’t say that the future of the format depends on the result.
Form guide
England WWWLL (last five Tests, most recent first)
Sri Lanka WWWLL
In the spotlight:
Dan Lawrence has a more exotic range of shots than most and played his best Test innings, an effervescent 91 in Barbados, two games before losing his place at the start of the Stokes-McCullum era in 2022. Since then he has had to bide his time for a taste of Bazball, featuring as the spare batter pretty much throughout – and it has taken an injury to an opener for him to finally get back in the side. Lawrence has opened just seven times in 203 first-class innings but, as he put it, would have “snapped their hand off” for any opportunity. Now he just has to take it.
During a lengthy career across all formats, Angelo Mathews has been there, done that and got the t-shirt. Now 37, and unlikely to play much of a part of Sri Lanka’s limited-overs sides, he shapes as the rock of the Test middle order and a key man to their hopes of putting England under pressure this time around. It was Mathews’ majestic second-innings 160 that helped turn the 2014 Headingley Test and bring Sri Lanka their most-recent victory over England; he averages 47.88 in the country, having also got himself on the Lord’s honours board on that tour.
Team news: Lawrence, Potts back; Rathnayake to debut
England named their team two days out from the start, confirming that Potts would come in for Stokes as part of a rebalanced XI. The loss of their captain and star allrounder means Smith moving into the top six and Woakes at No. 7, with Potts joining a four-man seam attack supplemented by Shoaib Bashir’s offspin. Lawrence, whose promotion to opener was inked in a few weeks ago, could also be called on to bowl.
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 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Sri Lanka largely have a settled top six, and given Kamindu Mendis’ start in Tests (he has passed fifty in four of his five innings so far, with two hundreds), he takes the No. 7 spot. Vishwa and Asitha have been their most reliable long-form quicks recently, while left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya will play against an England XI made up of 10 right-handers. The biggest surprise, however, is the inclusion of Milan Rathnayake, who has been picked for a debut ahead of Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara, both of whom were good against Bangladesh earlier in the year, though they played only one Test apiece.
Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Nishan Madushka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kamindu Mendis, 8 Prabath Jayasuriya, 9 Asitha Fernando, 10 Vishwa Fernando, 11 Milan Rathnayake
Pitch and conditions: Weather watch in store
Hard and bouncy with the expectation that it will assist spin as the game goes on. That is the usual fare at Old Trafford, where few captains ever consider sticking the opposition in (see trivia below). But an extremely dodgy forecast, with a strong possibility of rain on all five days, may mean Pope and de Silva need to get creative in pursuit of a positive result. In addition to the weather, an extra layer of grass persuaded Sri Lanka to pick three quicks.
Stats and trivia
Quotes
“It’s still Stokesy’s team. I think everyone’s pretty clear how they want to go about this week and this series in general. Having Stokesy in the changing room is great … If I want to lean on him, I can lean on him and I think he’s going to let me do my own thing for the course of this test series as well.”
Ollie Pope won’t be changing too much as captain
“It could be overcast conditions for a few days, so it might help the seamers, and we have one world-class spinner with us. If he comes into the game in the second innings, we have a good chance to win.”
Dhananjaya de Silva sets out his team’s plan to take 20 wickets
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
