Sri Lanka win the toss and bowl under cloudy Oval skies – T20 IPL 2024

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl vs England

Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bowl first under heavy skies in the third and final Test at The Kia Oval, where England are seeking a clean sweep of the series.

After heavy showers in parts of London and Surrey early in the morning, play was set to begin on time with complete cloud cover and the floodlights blazing but no sign of rain.

As reported on Thursday, tall left-arm quick Josh Hull will make his Test debut at the age of 20 as England seek a point of difference. He was presented with his cap by Andrew Flintoff, who teamed up with England in an assistant-coach role ahead of the match while Marcus Trescothick took a break before assuming the role of interim white-ball coach for England’s upcoming series against Australia.

Ollie Pope, England’s stand-in captain, looked beyond the fact that he would also have chosen to bowl first as an “opportunity to test ourselves with the bat” and turned his attention to excitement over Hull’s call-up.

“There’s no pressure from inside the dressing room and he’s got a great opportunity to show what he’s got,” Pope said. “He’s been bowling beautifully in the nets and in the warm-up.”

Hull’s surprise inclusion aside, Sri Lanka, too, have broken with convention and picked a four-pronged pace attack, leaving out Prabath Jayasuriya for Vishwa Fernando while reshuffling their top order with Kusal Mendis returning to the side at No. 3 behind opener Pathum Nissanka as Nishan Madushka makes way.

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

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

Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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