Stokes’ Absence Adds Extra Edge to England-Sri Lanka Series

AFP/APP

London: England head into the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford starting Wednesday with several players given a chance to prove a point after captain Ben Stokes’s series-ending injury.

Star all-rounder Stokes is set to play no part at all in the three-match contest after tearing his hamstring during the Hundred.

This means England will be without their inspirational leader for the first time since Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum launched the team’s dynamic ‘Bazball’ era two years ago. 

Ollie Pope, the England vice-captain, will now skipper the side even though he has led county team Surrey in just one first-class match.

England announced their team on Monday, with fast bowler Matthew Potts recalled as they opted for a five-man attack.

Meanwhile, Dan Lawrence—rarely deployed as an opener in county cricket—returns to the England side for the first time in two-and-a-half years after Zak Crawley’s fractured finger created a vacancy at the top of the order.

Crawley suffered his setback as England completed a 3-0 whitewash of the West Indies last month.

England will be expected to achieve a similar result against a Sri Lanka side who, like the West Indies, have played just a solitary warm-up match prior to the first Test. Conventional cricket wisdom has rarely been a part of England’s approach under the guidance of former New Zealand captain McCullum, so it should come as no surprise they have opted against replacing Crawley with a specialist opener.

Indeed, Lawrence himself is in no doubt his natural attacking game is well-suited to the approach of the current England set-up. “I think that’s the style of cricketer that Baz McCullum and Ben Stokes are generally after and my general way of going about it is to try and be quite aggressive,” Lawrence said Monday. 

“Throughout my whole career I’ve played a certain brand of cricket and that has served me well so I’m just going to do the same thing. I’m just going to go out there and try to be as free as possible.”