And now we are back to the regular programme… After three weeks of big city action in the bright lights and the Hundred, England’s men resume their Test schedule with a three-match series against Sri Lanka. Of course, it is debatable which is the bigger issue. Test cricket may still be the region’s main economic driver, but the ECB’s significant cash injection through the main white-ball competition and the hope that the longest format will have a low summer make the runes harder to read than usual.
Could Sri Lanka, who last played a Test match outside the subcontinent 18 months ago, offer more competition than the West Indies, who were crushed 3-0 in just 10 days of cricket last month? Should their ability to compete (or not) be taken as an indicator of the health of Test cricket as a whole? Could the absence of Ben Stokes, who tore his hamstring while playing for the Hundred for the first time since 2021, leave England’s reshaped Test team more vulnerable than it might otherwise be?
Of course, there is little evidence that Sri Lanka will be able to pull off a surprise. They have a 100% win rate in Test matches this year (they currently sit above England in the World Test Championship), but the last of their three games came in Bangladesh in March. Their only tour match before Old Trafford was a defeat to an inexperienced England Lions, who were bowled out for 139 in their first innings. A rare opportunity to play in England in the late summer offers the tempting prospect of hot weather and a worn surface for spinners to exploit, but the forecast for the first Test match in Manchester is as grim as it was for their previous trip to a cold northern outpost in May.
Sri Lanka have lost seven of their last eight Test matches against England and, more than a decade after their last win – despite it being a famous match featuring three of the current squad – they may be fearing the worst.
The key to their competitive potential will probably be the batsmen’s ability to score runs. Sanat Jayasurya, Sri Lanka’s interim head coach and a former wicket bowler before the term was coined, has enjoyed much success in England and can draw on the expertise of former England batsman Ian Bell, who has been brought in as batting coach. Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal will bring experience from the 2014 and 2016 tours, while Dhanajaya de Silva has a solid Test pedigree that has been strengthened since taking over as captain earlier this year (average: 56.20).
The squad is well-stocked with seam options, with Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando both having county experience, while only Nathan Lyon and R Ashwin have taken more wickets than slow left-hander Prabath Jayasuriya since his debut in 2022. The fact that Jayasuriya has taken 63 runs at 24.28 at home, while away he has taken 8 runs at 57.25, shows the adaptation challenge the tourists will face nonetheless.
Their advantage is that they are suddenly up against a noticeably different England team. Having lost Zak Crawley to a broken finger in the third West Indies Test three weeks ago, and now an injury to Stokes, the England XI at Old Trafford is limited to a first-Test opener in Dan Lawrence and the previous experience of Ollie Pope has been limited to England’s warm-up and a few games in Surrey.
Stokes will remain in the dressing room to provide leadership, but the absence of the architect of the buzzball on the pitch is bound to have an impact, not least in terms of reducing the batting order. With Matthew Potts named as Stokes’ replacement ahead of Jordan Cox, the Durham seamer will be capped for only the second time since the summer of 2022, meaning a change in the batting order for Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson, who impressed at No. 7 in the debut series against the West Indies.
The unexpected disruption, coupled with England recalling Ollie Stone after Dylan Pennington’s injury in the Hundred, adds to the sense that this may not be such a simple task, especially if Sri Lanka, unbeaten in six London Tests dating back to 1998, can return safely this week. For some, the mere fact that England will have the chance to play a three-Test series for the first time in the summer is a treat in itself. Just don’t tell me the future of the format depends on the result.
Form Guide
uk WWWLL (last 5 tests, most recent first) Sri Lanka WWWLL
Spotlight:
Dan Lawrence He has a more exotic range of shots than most, and his best Test innings was 91 in Barbados, two games before he lost his place at the start of the Stokes-McCullum era in 2022. Since then, he has had to bide his time to get a taste of the Bazball, appearing almost exclusively as a reserve batsman, and it was only when an injury to an opener that he was finally able to get back into the team. Lawrence has opened just seven times in 203 first-class innings, but any opportunity, as he puts it, would have “broken their hands”. Now he just has to take it.
During my long career across all formats, Angelo Matthews Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Now 37, he is unlikely to play much in Sri Lanka’s limited-overs team, but he is shaping up to be the rock of the Test middle order and a key figure in their hopes of putting pressure on England this time around. It was Mathews’ majestic second innings score of 160 that helped turn the 2014 Headingley Test around and gave Sri Lanka their most recent victory over England. He averaged 47.88 for his country and was on the Lord’s honours board during that tour.
Team News: Lawrence, Potts Return; Lasnayake Debut
England announced their squad two days before kick-off, confirming that Potts will be part of a re-jigged XI to replace Stokes. Smith, who has lost his captain and star all-rounder, moves to the top six, Warkes moves to No. 7, and Potts joins a four-man seam attack complemented by the off-spin of Shoaib Bashir. Lawrence, who was promoted to opener a few weeks ago, could also be called upon to bowl.
uk: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (c), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (above), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Sri Lanka have largely filled the top six, with Kamindu Mendis starting in Tests (he has scored over 50 in four of his five innings so far, and has scored two hundreds) making him seventh. Vishwa and Asitha have been the most reliable long-form quicks of late, while left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya will feature in an England XI of 10 right-handers. But the biggest surprise has been the inclusion of Milan Rathnayake, who was selected to make his debut ahead of Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara, who had performed well against Bangladesh earlier this year but have played just one Test each.
It is firm and bouncy with the expectation that the spin will help as the game progresses. This is a common occurrence at Old Trafford, and it is not uncommon for a captain to consider poking his opponents (see quiz below). However, a very odd forecast with a high chance of rain for all five days could mean Pope and De Silva will have to get creative to get a positive result. In addition to the weather, there is also an extra layer of grass, so Sri Lanka have opted for three quick methods.
Statistics and Trivia
It will be the first time Sri Lanka will play a Test match in England in the latter half of the summer since 1998, when they took advantage of dry conditions at the Oval in late August to claim their first win in the country.
No team has ever won a match after winning the coin toss at Old Trafford and opting to bowl, but England missed the chance to break the record in last year’s Ashes Test because of the weather, ending in eight draws and three defeats in 11 attempts.
Sri Lanka have previously played a Test match in Manchester, losing by 10 wickets in 2002.
Joe Root starts the series on 446 runs to surpass England’s all-time Test run-scorer Alastair Cook. He needs 374 runs to surpass Kumar Sangakkara, who is sixth overall.
Dimuth Karunaratne scored 101 more runs to become the fourth Sri Lankan to reach 7000 runs in Tests.
Sri Lankan all-rounder Kamindu is not only an ambidextrous bowler, he also has a higher batting average than Bradman at the moment, with a batting average of 107.00 in just five Test innings.
quotes
“It’s still Stokesy’s team. I think everyone is pretty clear on what we’re going to do this week and throughout this series. Having Stokesy in the dressing room is brilliant… If I want to rely on him, I can rely on him and I think he’ll let me do what I want over the course of this Test series.” Ollie Pope As a captain, it won’t change much.
“It could be overcast for a few days, which could help the seamers and we have one world-class spinner with us. If he plays in the second innings, we have a good chance of winning.” Dananjaya de Silva His team was set to take 20 wickets.
Alan Gardner is the deputy editor of ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
