The third and last Test of the ongoing series between Sri Lanka and England will be played on 6th September at Oval
Match preview:
England will be in flying confidence to white-wash the Sri Lankan side like they previously did to the West Indies. If anything, it will improve their chances for the qualification of the World Test Championship (WTC) final to be played at Lord’s, next year.
England have made changes in their playing xi and the young bowling prodigy; Josh Hull will be making his debut. He emerged in the County championship last summer and has shown commendable and convincing performances so far. The pacer also showed lusty performances in The Hundred competition and is all set to become only second left-arm pacer to feature for England in Test since Ryan Sidebottom in 2010.
Even Brendon McCullum who will be leading England in (some of) the white-ball fixture too, spoke highly about this up-and-coming star
“Six foot heaps, bowls left-arm, ranges in pace from 80 to 90 miles an hour. Swings it, not too dissimilar to the likes of Jimmy Anderson. He’s 20 years of age, good farming stock. It’s not a huge gamble, is it?”
Apart from Hull, this game will be crucial for Ollie Pope, the stand-in skipper. This game will serve as an ideal chance for Pope to increase his average as a captain, assuming Ben Stokes will be back to lead the side against Pakistan. Pope has just managed 30 runs in 4 innings so far.
And not to forget Dan Lawrence who will try to impress the team, fans, and selectors to remain in debate for Pakistan’s tour.
Talking about Sri Lanka, they will look forward to improving their batting and avoiding the collapse. This is somewhat the Sri Lankan skipper also acknowledged.
“We need to score big runs and that’s the biggest fault that we had in the first two Tests. Most of our batters who had got started didn’t convert. Joe Root is a good example, he converted the stars into hundreds. Others batted around him. One of us needs to do that and if that happens we need to get a score of 320 mark in the first innings.”
And in particular, there may be a chance, the tourists will play with more confidence. They have a 100% win record at Oval because when the side last played at this venue, they registered a famous win over the home side in 1998.
Asitha Fernando and Kamindu Mendis showed resistance at Lord’s and the experienced campaigners, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva also put England on a back-foot with half-centuries.
But to win, they need to bat long and long. Only time will tell if they can show resistance, class, and temperament at the Oval.
Playing XIs:
England:
Dan Lawrence
Ben Duckett
Ollie Pope (capt)
Joe Root
Harry Brook
Jamie Smith (wk)
Chris Woakes
Gus Atkinson
Olly Stone
Shoaib Bashir
Josh Hull
Sri Lanka:
Dimuth Karunaratne
Pathum Nissanka
Kusal Mendis
Angelo Mathews
Dinesh Chandimal (wk)
Dhananjaya de Silva (capt)
Kamindu Mendis
Milan Rathnayake
Lahiru Kumara
Vishwa Fernando
Asitha Fernando
Pitch and weather report:
The Oval pitch tends to support pacers as compared to the spinners. And probably this is the reason why Sri Lanka did not opt for a spinner in their playing XI. During the county championship this season, 173 wickets were taken by the pacers while spinners could only take 26 wickets at this venue.
About weather, it is a mixture of forecasts during this Test as there are signs of sunshine, clouds, and potential showers in between but let’s hope for the best.
Head-to-head record:
A total of 38 games have been played between the side and in 19 games England stood victorious while Sri Lanka clinched victory in 8 games.
Predictions:
Given their recent performances, England are favourites to win this final Test match of the series.
Where to watch:
Pakistan: Tapmad
UK: Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Go app, TNT sports
India: Sony Sports network, Sony Liv, FanCode app
South Africa: Super Sports app, Super Sport cricket
Others: CricHD
