[Lord Snooty]

Sri Lanka v England

The 1st ODI match
Wednesday November 26th
at Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
starting at 14:30 local time, 09:00 GMT.

It's rainy season in Sri Lanka and the forecast for this first match of the series of seven is thunderstorms. Well thunderstorms early on, but not much later on, so maybe possibly a reduced overs match, if they can get cleared up sufficiently to get a game in.

If they do, England are likely to be without Steven Finn, who has a groin injury. They are also likely to go without the explosive opening bat of Alex Hales, instead preferring Moeen Ali, who performed brilliantly in the only warm up match played prior to the series. He also offers the team an extra bowling option, which he also did well in that warm up game. Ian Bell will probably bat at 3, with Joe Root at 4 and Eoin Morgan at 5, with big hitting wicketkeeper Jos Buttler in next.
The pace attack is looking very second string without James Anderson and Stuart Broad and now Finn. Chris Jordan, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Harry Gurney all know they will have to bowl well to stick around for the World Cup in February.

Sri Lanka come into the game on the back of a 5-0 hammering in India recently, maybe not as bad as it sounds as the team were under prepared, being a last minute replacement for the West Indies, who had abandoned their tour mid way through.

Despite their poor form they still have names that will strike fear into the English players, such as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Rangana Herath and the skipper, Angelo Mathews.


England squad: Alastair Cook ©, Moeen Ali, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler (w), Steven Finn, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.

Sri Lanka squad: Angelo Mathews ©, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Kumar Sangakkara (w), Mahela Jayawardena, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeevan Mendis, Thilina Kandamby, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Ajantha Mendis, Shaminda Eranga, Dhammika Prasad, Thisara Perera, Lahiru Gamage.

Scorecard