England v Sri Lanka T20 At Bristol Preview: New Captains Face-Off In Warm-Up To ODIs

The Tests done with, it is the turn of the limited overs bit of the Sri Lankan tour of England. And the two sides will warm up with the one-off T20I to be played at Bristol in Gloucester.

The loss in the Test series to England notwithstanding, the T20I will be a different kettle of fish. Sri Lanka has a team which much better-suited to the shorter format and despite the fact that the English side is a World T20-winning team, the two teams will be evenly balanced.

Of course, Sri Lanka will miss Tillakaratne Dilshan, a batsman whose game is tailor-made for this format of the game. In his place, there is another, similarly-aggressive but a now-veteran of more than two decades of international cricket, Sanath Jayasuriya, who will make it to the opening slot. This will be Jayasuriya’s penultimate international before he retires from the game.

In Dilshan, the captain’s place, Thilina Kandamby will lead the side.

England have a new captain as well. This is the first game in which England will have Stuart Broad leading the team, after he was one of the three skippers unveiled last month. Eoin Morgan is his deputy and the pair will lead a relatively fresh-looking English side out on to the park today.

Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb are reunited in this format of the game after being given the axe last year while the bowling department will be handled by Broad, Chris Woakes and one of Steve Finn and Jade Dernbach. Graeme Swann should walk in as the sole spinner.

Sri Lanka’s middle-order should have been boosted by the return to form of Angelo Mathews, but it has been said that he is injured and may not play a part in the game. This makes it almost certain that Jeevan Mendis will get his first T20I cap.

Lasith Malinga’s presence in the Lankan eleven will augur well for the side and the English batsmen will do well to beware of his toe-crushers. Malinga comes into the series on the back of some wonderful IPL form where he had won the Purple Cap by a long distance.

England versus Sri Lanka one-off T20I at Bristol starts at 1430 hours local time or 1330 hours GMT on June 25.