Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva believes Ben Stokes’ harm may assist his aspect upset the percentages in its Take a look at collection in opposition to England.
De Silva is skippering the touring aspect in its first red-ball marketing campaign in England for eight years, with Sri Lanka heading into the primary of a three-match contest at Previous Trafford beginning Wednesday on the again of a defeat by a novice England Lions crew in its lone warm-up fixture.
Sri Lanka has gained simply three of its earlier 18 Checks in England, whereas England come into this collection following a 3-0 dwelling rout of the West Indies.
However star all-rounder Stokes is now set to overlook the entire of the Sri Lanka marketing campaign with a hamstring tear suffered whereas enjoying within the Hundred.
His absence has led England to nominate a brand new captain in Ollie Pope and recall paceman Matthew Potts, a Durham team-mate of Stokes.
“He’s the stability of their aspect,” mentioned De Silva of Stokes whereas talking throughout a pre-match press convention at Previous Trafford on Tuesday. “He’s the important thing participant for them, in terms of bowling, batting, every part.”
England even have a brand new opening batsman in Dan Lawrence, chosen after Zak Crawley was dominated out with a finger harm.
“A brand new man (Lawrence) is available in to play… there will likely be stress on him, coming again into the aspect to open in these circumstances,” De Silva added.
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“We now have high quality seamers in our aspect and we have now a world-class spinner with us (Prabath Jayasuriya). If he comes into the sport within the second innings, we really feel we have now likelihood to win the sport.”
Sri Lanka, in the meantime, is about to offer a debut to tempo bowler Milan Rathnayake, included within the crew introduced on Tuesday.
It are additionally hoping to utilise the native information of former England batsman Ian Bell, who has been drafted in as a advisor for this collection.
“He was a top quality participant who performed a whole lot of Take a look at cricket and one-day cricket in England,” mentioned De Silva. “His factors will likely be priceless for us and as a batting unit, we’re all getting ideas from him.”
Sri Lanka crew for first Take a look at:
Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Dinesh Chandimal (wkt), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Milan Rathnayake, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando