England wins the toss and opt to bat

Joe Root has won his seventh toss in a row in Test cricket and chosen to bat first in the second Test Pallekele.

England, who won the first Test in Galle by 211 runs, are unchanged. Ben Stokes will bat No. 3, however, with Moeen Ali pushed down to No. 6.

If England win here, they will have secured their first series victory in Sri Lanka since 2001 and their first series win anywhere in Asia since 2012.

Sri Lanka have been forced into two changes. Dinesh Chandimal, their captain, sustained a grade 1 groin tear in Galle so is unavailable, while record-breaking left-arm spinner, Rangana Herath, has retired.

In their place, Sri Lanka have recalled Roshen Silva, who last played Test cricket against South Africa in July, and left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara, who is 31-years-old and played the last of his two Tests in 2017.

With both captains describing the pitch as dry, Root’s decision to bat first was no surprise. Batting is expected to become more difficult as the game progresses.

England: 1 Rory Burns, 2 Keaton Jennings, 3 Jos Buttler, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Sam Curran, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jack Leach, 11 James Anderson

Sri Lanka: 1 Kaushal Silva, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne , 3 Roshen Silva, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 7 Dhananjaya de Silva, 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Suranga Lakmal (capt), 10 Akila Dananjaya, 11 Malinda Pushpakumara

Source: ESPN Cricinfo
-Agencies