England head into the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford starting Wednesday with several players given a chance to prove a point after captain Ben Stokes‘s series-ending injury. Star all-rounder Stokes is set to play no part at all in the three-match contest after tearing his hamstring during the Hundred. And that means England will be without their inspirational leader for the first time since Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum launched the team’s dynamic ‘Bazball’ era two years ago.

Ollie Pope, the England vice-captain, will now skipper the side even though he has led county team Surrey in just one first-class match.

England announced their team on Monday, with fast bowler Matthew Potts recalled as they opted for a five-man attack.

Meanwhile, Dan Lawrence — rarely deployed as an opener in county cricket — returns to the England side for the first time in two-and-a-half years after Zak Crawley‘s fractured finger created a vacancy at the top of the order.

Crawley suffered his setback as England completed a 3-0 whitewash of the West Indies last month.

England will be expected to achieve a similar result against a Sri Lanka side who, like the West Indies, have played just a solitary warm-up match prior to the first Test.

Conventional cricket wisdom has rarely been a part of England’s approach under the guidance of former New Zealand captain McCullum, so it should come as no surprise they have opted against replacing Crawley with a specialist opener.

Indeed Lawrence himself is in no doubt his natural attacking game is well-suited to the approach of the current England set-up.

“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.”

Experience

Sri Lanka can no longer call on star batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, but their squad does contain experienced performers in Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne.

Dhananjaya de Silva‘s side will, however, be able to turn to another Sri Lanka great in Sanath Jayasuriya, the squad’s interim coach, who took over after Chris Silverwood, the ex-England paceman, opted against renewing his contract in June.

And former England batsman Ian Bell, also a member of the backroom staff, is on hand to provide local knowledge for what is Sri Lanka’s first series on English soil in eight years.

Sri Lanka last played Test cricket in April but they do have recent experience of upsetting the odds after defeating India 2-0 in a three-match one-day international series earlier this month.

“We have an experienced batting order,” Jayasuriya, a dynamic batsman who pulverised England attacks in all formats, told ESPNCricinfo.

“Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal — they have all played a lot of cricket.”

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s first Test in England, a match where Sidath Wettimuny made a superb 190 — one of several hundreds for the tourists — in a highly creditable draw at Lord’s.

And Jayasuriya believes the timing of the current campaign could favour Sri Lanka.

“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.”

Sanath Jayasuriya, the interim Sri Lanka men’s head coach, believes the Test team set to play three games against England in the latter half of the summer is a great opportunity, citing the conditions will suit the visitors. Sri Lanka starts their Test series against England on August 21 at Old Trafford in Manchester. “The fact that we have got a late-summer tour is great, because the wickets have been used a lot, and there’s more sunshine at this time of year. It’s more similar to our conditions than the early summer tours. I have made sure the players know it’s a great opportunity,” Jayasuriya told ESPNCricinfo.

With many players touring England for the first time for the longer format, Jayasuriya stated about ensuring the Sri Lankan players are in the right mindset before the series begins. “I want to make sure there is that hunger. Playing three Tests like this is not an opportunity you will get easily again.”

“So we have to take it while we can. Scoring runs here is challenging, because even if the pitches are flat, the ball can still start swinging, or seaming. We have to know how to adjust to that.”

In his six Tests in England, Jayasuriya scored 421 runs at an average of 42.1, with his best knock being 213 coming at the Oval in 1998. With Sri Lanka having the services of Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews, who were members of the Test series-winning team in England in 2014, Jayasuriya wants other batters to be flexible in their batting approach.

“We have the personnel there, but we need to fight hard. If you play six or seven batters, only two or three will perform for sure. If they get a start they need to play big innings. They know they have that responsibility on challenging wickets.”

“Everyone should play their natural game, but once you get that start, there are places where you need to break things down a little, and either bat quickly, or slow down for a bit. When the ball gets older, it can still seam here, which is the uniqueness of the Duke ball.”

Sri Lanka are placed in fourth position on the World Test Championships standings, with a point percentage of 50% while England are in seventh place with 36.54%. Jayasuriya signed off by saying Sri Lanka have bowling plans to counter England’s aggressive style of batting.

“It’s in the first ten overs that there will be the most pressure I think. If you look historically, they have been attacking in the first ten overs and getting runs on the board quickly. We have got some plans to counter that. And we know this is how they will play.”

“We have to bowl in the right places, and if they hit the good balls, that’s okay. We need to identify the right lengths given the conditions. There will be times when we need to cover the areas of the field where they are attacking, to cut down the boundaries.”

Ahead of the white-ball home series against India, newly appointed interim head coach Sanath Jayasuriya calls for discipline within the Sri Lankan team, including enforcing proper haircuts and the removal of piercings. Addressing the media, former skipper Jayasuirya admitted instilling discipline in current players is important, specially to maintain cricket as “the gentlemen’s game”. “We did basic disciplining. We are expecting discipline in general, and I am only an interim coach during my tenure. I want that discipline,” said Jayasuriya, who has been appointed as a temporary coach for the series against India and Sri Lanka’s tour of England in September.

“Our cricket-loving public love these cricketers, and they are watching them and there are young cricketers who are looking up to senior cricketers. They like to learn from them. If they do well it would help the younger generation of cricketers as well. It was on this backdrop we introduced these changes. We want to maintain cricket as the gentlemen’s game,” he added.

Backing Jayasuriya’s attempt to discipline the young cricketers, country’s Sports Minister Harin Fernando, earlier stressed the need for modesty and discipline among cricketers representing the country and argued that humble behavior could mitigate most of the criticism cricketers face after match losses.

“If the team had been more humble and their attitudes had shifted, the people of Sri Lanka would not have been so critical of match losses. People have a deep love for cricket” the Sports Minister had said.

Jayasuriya also stressed that Sri Lanka should get the best advantage from the absence of three experienced players; Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who have announced their retirement from the shorter format after T20 World Cup last month.

“They are not in the team, which is a loss to the Indian team, and we should take maximum advantage of it ,” he said. “Rohit, Virat and Jadeja are the best players in the world. With their talent, the cricket they played, we all know where they stand,” Jayasuirya said.

The three T20Is will be played on July 27, 28 and 30 at Pallekele International Stadium followed by three ODIs, starting from August 2 in Colombo.

The India’s tour of Sri Lanka will be starting from July 26 onwards, with the tour starting with a three-match T20I series. The tour will also consist of a three-match ODI series, which will kickstart from August 1 onwards. The Pallekele International Stadium will be hosting the T20I leg of the series while the R Premadasa is getting to host the 50-over matches, announced BCCI. The first T20I will take place on July 26, followed by the second one on July 27 and the final one on July 29.

Both teams will be taking to the field with new head coaches. While legendary all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya has been named as the interim head coach for Lankans, this will also be the first assignment for former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir as the head coach, succeeding the T20 World Cup winning coach Rahul Dravid.

NEWS

Fixtures for the upcoming India tour of Sri Lanka announced! #TeamIndia | #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/6HmvJXHprH

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 11, 2024

India’s last tour of Sri Lanka for a bilateral white-ball series came back in July 2021, with Dravid coaching the Shikhar Dhawan led side. India won the ODI series 2-1 while Sri Lanka secured the T20I series with same margin.

This will be India’s second T20I series after their T20 World Cup win, defeating South Africa by seven runs in the final. Currently, a new-look India side, led by Shubman Gill and coached by VVS Laxman is on a tour to Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series. The series is currently in India’s hands by 2-1, with the fourth T20I set to be played on Saturday at Harare.

On the other hand, the T20 World Cup was poor for Sri Lanka as they failed to reach the Super Eights. They lost to South Africa and Bangladesh in the group stage and could only register one win against the Netherlands. Their game against Nepal was washed out due to rain. With just three points, Lanka finished in the third spot in Group D.

Following Rohit Sharma’s announcement to retire from T20Is after winning the ICC T20 World Cup, all-rounder Hardik Pandya is likely to lead the Men in Blue in the shortest format of the game. Meanwhile, wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul will lead the team in ODIs, as per the sources.

“Hardik Pandya is all set to lead the Indian team in the T20, Rohit Sharma’s announced his retirement. Hardik is also unlikely to be rested for the upcoming series vs Sri Lanka,” BCCI Sources told ANI.

In the T20 WC, Pandya scored 144 runs in six innings at an average of 48.00 and a strike rate of 151.57, with a half-century and best score of 50*. He also took 11 wickets in eight games at an average of 17.36 and an economy rate of 7.64, with the best figures of 3/20.

This tournament marked a redemption tale for Hardik, who was booed out in every stadium across India during the IPL 2024 after taking over the captaincy of Mumbai Indians (MI) from five-time IPL champion Rohit Sharma. The all-rounder, who was just making a comeback into the game after suffering an injury to his ankle in the 50-over World Cup last year, became a victim of online trolling and fan wars as he was accused of betraying the MI franchise, Rohit and his former franchise Gujarat Titans (GT), which he led to IPL title in 2022.

On the other hand, KL Rahul was omitted from the Men in Blue T20 WC squad despite performing brilliantly in the ODI World Cup 2023 which was held in India, scoring 452 runs in 11 games with a century and two fifties.

Former Sri Lanka cricket captain Sanath Jayasuriya. File
| Photo Credit: VIBHU H

Former captain Sanath Jayasuriya was on Monday named the interim head coach of Sri Lanka’s cricket team ahead of this month’s white-ball home series against India with the country’s board saying that he is “well-positioned” to guide the side till a “permanent solution” is found in the next few months.

The Indian team will be touring Sri Lanka for three T20 Internationals and as many ODIs, starting July 27.

Jayasuriya, who has also served as a chief selector in the past, will continue in the post till Sri Lanka’s Test tour to England in August-September, comprising three games.

“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce the appointment of Mr. Sanath Jayasuriya as the ‘Interim Head Coach’ of the national team. He will function in the position until the completion of Sri Lanka’s tour of England in September 2024,” the SLC said in a statement.

The 55-year-old, a swashbuckling opener in his prime, was named for the interim post after Englishman Chris Silverwood resigned last week as Sri Lanka head coach.

Silverwood stepped down in the wake of the country’s disastrous T20 World Cup campaign, during which it was ousted from the league stage itself.

One of the most attacking batters of his time, Jayasuriya had recently been a consultant for the team during this year’s T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean.

“Jayasuriya is currently serving as the full-time ‘Cricket Consultant’ of Sri Lanka Cricket. His new appointment comes into immediate effect.” “Sanath with his wealth of international cricketing experience is well positioned to guide the national team, until we find a permanent solution,” said SLC CEO Ashley De Silva.

Jayasuriya played in 110 Tests between 1991 and 2007, scoring 6973 runs at an average of 40.07, with the help of 14 centuries and 31 fifties.

In the 445 ODIs he played, the left-hander struck 13,430 runs at an average of 32.36, with 28 hundreds and 68 half-centuries. He was a key member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 1996 ODI World Cup. He also served as Member of Parliament from 2010-15.

File photo of Sanath Jayasuriya