 England will play Sri Lanka in the first ODI of the series at the Oval on June
28. This series follows the T20I that was played at Bristol and won by the Sri
Lankan side, interestingly, rather easily at that.
There is an obvious change to the squad for the English side. They go into
the game with a new captain to start off with - Alastair Cook takes over the
role of captaincy from Stuart Broad who messed it up in the T20I by making
a wrong selection in Ian Bell. Bell has quite clearly been the form batsman
of the English side and to drop him from the T20I made no sense. He will now
be back into the side and will look to ensure that they can get going with the
runs.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs Sri Lanka
On the other hand, it will be interesting to see whether they continue playing
Samit Patel in the playing eleven after his no-show in the T20I. Instead, it
could just allow Graeme Swann to cut his break short and enter the playing
eleven.
Interestingly, the English selectors have also allowed James Anderson to enter
the squad. He had a woeful last couple of months including the World Cup and
the ODI series against Australia and had to be dropped from the last couple
of games - however, he would have had the time to think about his game and approach
to bowling in this format of the game.
Sri Lanka will probably have the services back of Tillakaratne Dilshan.
That will allow him to not only captain the side but also give the side an opportunity
to bat at the top of the innings - something that will help getting the side
off to a good start. Sanath Jayasuriya, who had a good time with the ball but
failed with the bat will open the innings in what will be the last innings he
plays at the international level for the side.
The bowling, which has usually been of some concern, will see the Lankans have
Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera, but there is also a chance that
Dhammika Prasad could get a chance given his ability to swing the ball around
in English conditions.
It should be an evenly contested game but Sri Lanka will look to continue with
their winning form over England as they had done in the World Cup.
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