Category: Sri Lanka Cricket

• Leicestershire left-armer replaces Matt Potts
• Bowler made first-class debut last year

Josh Hull will cap an ­extraordinary rise to prominence by making his England Test debut on Friday after the 20‑year‑old seamer was picked for the summer’s final match against Sri Lanka at the Oval.

Hull replaces Matt Potts in the only change to the side that sealed a series win at Lord’s last week. The 6ft 7in left-armer has played only nine County Championship games; in three matches in that competition for Leicestershire this summer he took two wickets at an average of 182.50.

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Joe Root continues to deliver masterful centuries and Olly Stone offers glimpse of potency but tourists toil at Lord’s

The rankings are yet to update at the time of writing but after two masterful centuries at Lord’s – his third and fourth this year – Joe Root’s lead at the top will only have increased. Right now, utterly glowing with form, he is the best in the business.

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2nd over: England 2-0 (Duckett 2, Lawrence 0) From the Nursery End, it’s Milan Rathnayake, who made his debut last week and batted better than he bowled. He makes a steady start, starving Duckett of the width he craves until the last ball, which is chopped for another single. Two overs, two runs – someone tell Sir Geoffrey, Test creekit is back.

1st over: England 1-0 (Duckett 1, Lawrence 0) Fernando starts with a yorker, swinging into Duckett, who digs it out and steals a single. A more orthodox ball, jagging in towards Dan Lawrence’s off stump, brings an LBW appeal, but it’s too high. Are England still in the subdued mode with which they stunned us in Manchester?

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“As a 90s kid I always remember Thorpe as a swashbuckling strokeplayer,” writes Matt Storey. “That one-legged pull shot and thrilling cut shots. His hundred at Edgbaston 1997 when we were all tricked into thinking we might actually win the Ashes! He changed over time to be a gritty, no nonsense player protecting his wicket but that was a regeneration of his original game. I like to remember early Thorpe the shot maker. Though any version was amazing.”

That’s my favourite version too, even though he became a more complete player under Duncan Fletcher. Those counter-attacks, which stemmed from watching Brian Lara in 1993-94, were both exhilarating and impactful. Pick an England win against the big three in the 1990s and there’s every chance the match will have been turned by a Thorpe counter-attack. Even at Edgbaston in 1997, Nasser Hussain rightly stole the show with his 207, but it was Thorpe who started it at a time when England were wobbling.

Feeling good, a lot better than I did when I did it. I went down like a sack of potatoes! It’s good to be back in the gym.

[On his role in this Test] The hardest thing for me is to fill my time and not get bored. I think Marcus Trescothick’s in for a long week with me around!

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• Ollie Pope sees ‘good opportunity to test ourselves’
• Sri Lanka’s De Silva frustrated by poor preparations

Ollie Pope goes into the first of three games as England’s Test captain, standing in for the injured Ben Stokes for the series against Sri Lanka, ­saying it is “still Stokesy’s team”. But he also suggested the next few weeks is a chance to prepare for a future ­without the 33-year-old all-rounder, who is recovering from a torn hamstring.

“We’ll miss Stokesy the captain and Stokesy the all-rounder,” Pope said, “but for us as a team, in the long term, it’s a good opportunity to test ourselves without him.”

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England’s stand-in Test captain has a weakened team under him for the first Test against Sri Lanka

If training has been anything to go by this week then Ollie Pope has already shown himself to be a shrewd England captain. Dan Lawrence has been performing drills for short-leg, suggesting the newbie in the lineup will be stationed in Pope’s usual spot against Sri Lanka.

Essex apparently offered ­danger money to players plonked at boot hill in the 1980s but the best batter of the county’s current crop – albeit a ­Surrey strutter these days – will be on the same match fee as his teammates.

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The batter’s former youth coach is in no doubt that Lawrence has the dedication and self-belief to succeed

Dan Lawrence, England’s newest Test opener, will roll into action at Old Traffordon Wednesday, more than two years since the last of his 11 Tests. Barry Hyam has been keeping an eye on him since he turned up on the Essex age-group pathway as an under-11, the cricket-obsessed son of the Chingford groundsman, who lived in a flat above the ground and liked to doodle before he went out to bat.

It wasn’t until Lawrence got a little older that he started to stand out. “At a young age, you can see the batting talent and skill, but you can’t immediately see who is going to make it,” Hyam says.

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• Harry Brook vice-captain with Ben Stokes injured
• Dan Lawrence ‘chuffed’ to get opportunity as opener

England have put their faith in a five-man bowling attack for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford this week, handing Matthew Potts a recall and asking Chris Woakes to play as a designated all-rounder in the absence of Ben Stokes.

Stokes was present at training on Monday but, while the crutches required after he tore his hamstring during the Hundred were no longer on show, the 33-year-old will still be supporting Ollie Pope – plus a new vice-captain in Harry Brook – from the sidelines for the three-match series that gets under way on Wednesday.

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