Sri Lanka bank on Mathews to get their campaign back on track

Rex Clementine in Bangalore

Former captain Angelo Mathews is expected to make a comeback today as Sri Lanka take on England in their World Cup fixture here in Bangalore. Mathews wasn’t part of Sri Lanka’s original squad but was drafted in as an injury replacement and now he is expected to feature in the playing eleven, possibly replacing Chamika Karunaratne.

Training was optional for Sri Lanka yesterday and Mathews was one of the two players to turn up for practices with the other being Dunith Wellalage. Mathews had an extended session that involved a net session and fielding practice. He did not bowl but he is expected to send down a few overs at a venue where extra bowling options are a must.

The square boundaries in Bangalore are really small and usually the games here are high scoring ones.

Wellalage too is expected to come into the side replacing Dushan Hemantha.

England, the defending champions, are under the pump, and this is a make-or-break game for them as they have got just two points after four games where they have won only one. Even if England win their remaining five games, they will be on 12 points and would struggle to make it to the semi-finals with their Net Run Rate being so poor.

England have been plagued by injuries to key players, but overall, they have failed to get their act together in the competition and defeat to Afghanistan completely derailed their campaign.

Sri Lanka have not lost a World Cup fixture against England since 1999. In the last 24 years, there have been four World Cup fixtures between these teams and all four have been won by Sri Lanka.

In this campaign, Sri Lanka had a couple of close games in which mistakes cost them the matches. England,  meanwhile have been beaten by big margins and have failed to compete.

England (Probable XI):

Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (Captain and wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood.

Sri Lanka (Probable XI):

Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (Captain and wicketkeeper), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha and Dilshan Madushanka.

Umpires:

Chris Brown (NZ)  and Adrian Holdstock (SA)

Third Umpire:

Ahsan Raza (PAK)

Match Referee:

Javagal Srinath (IND)