Toss Sri Lanka chose to bowl vs England
Heavy rain during the day lead to a delayed start at Hove but the weather cleared up enough for a 17-over contest starting at 7pm, an hour after the scheduled start time.
Heather Knight indicated before the game that this was the beginning of a new World Cup cycle for her team, just over a year out from next year’s tournament in Bangladesh, with Gaur the most eye-catching member of the next generation. A 6ft 3in left-armer, Gaur was born in Reading but made her international debut for UAE at the age of 12, and has impressed in the Hundred for Manchester Originals and with Thunder on the regional domestic circuit.
Lauren Bell was not considered for selection and will miss the second T20I in Chelmsford as well due to illness.
With slate-grey skies overhead, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu had no hesitation in inserting England, hoping for some assistance for her bowlers. Sri Lanka selected nine of the XI who claimed a first-ever T20I win over New Zealand in Colombo last month, with Athapaththu’s side having earlier taken the ODI series 2-1, another maiden success.
England 1 Danni Wyatt, 2 Maia Bouchier, 3 Alice Capsey, 4 Heather Knight (capt), 5 Amy Jones (wk), 6 Freya Kemp, 7 Danielle Gibson, 8 Sarah Glenn, 9 Charlie Dean, 10 Kate Cross, 11 Mahika Gaur
Sri Lanka 1 Harshitha Samarawickrama, 2 Chamari Athapaththu (capt), 3 Nilakshi de Silva, 4 Vishmi Gunaratne, 5 Kavisha Dilhari, 6 Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), 7 Inoka Ranaweera, 8 Sugandika Kumari, 9 Udeshika Prabodhani, 10 Hasini Perera, 11 Kawya Kavindi
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
Source: ESPN Crickinfo