With England set to play their first test against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, several players will be eyeing to prove a chance after captain Ben Stokes’ injury ruled him out of the series.
The all-rounder Ben Stokes sustained a hamstring injury during The Hundred 2024 competition and England will take on Sri Lanka for the first time without Stokes since the team launched the team’s dynamic ‘Bazball’ era two years ago.
In his absence, Ollie Pope will be leading the side despite the side even though he has led county team Surrey in just one FC class match.
Meanwhile, Dan Lawrence will be returning to the England side for the first time in two and half years after Zak Crawley’s finger fractured made a slot open in the top order.
“I think that’s the style of cricketer that Baz McCullum and Ben Stokes are generally after and my general way of going about it is to try and be quite aggressive,” Lawrence said Monday.
“Throughout my whole career, I’ve played a certain brand of cricket and that has served me well so I’m just going to do the same thing. I’m just going to go out there and try to be as free as possible,” concluded Dan Lawrence.
On the other hand, Sanath Jayasuriya opened up about his expectations on the England tests. “We have an experienced batting order,” said Jayasuriya.
“Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal — they have all played a lot of cricket.” This year will mark the 40th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s test in England, a match where Sidath made a superb one of several hundred for the tourists in a draw at Lord’s.
“The fact that we have got a late-summer tour is great,” he said. “It’s more similar to our conditions than the early summer tours.” The first match of the test series will start on August 21 at Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
