George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
Sri Lanka choose to bat, Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone back for England
Written by I Dig Sports
Published in
Cricket
Wednesday, 23 June 2021 10:39
Toss Sri Lanka chose to bat vs England
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first in the opening match of the T20I series against England in Cardiff. England captain, Eoin Morgan, admitted he would have bowled first anyway had he won the toss.
England recalled Chris Woakes for his first T20I since November 2015, while Liam Livingstone was preferred to Moeen Ali as the spinning allrounder to bat in the middle order. It's four years to the day since Livingstone made his international debut against South Africa in Taunton.
Sri Lanka, eighth in the world rankings, have made six changes to the team weakened by injury and unavailability that played their most recent T20I in March. No side has utilised more players (53 in 47 matches) since the World T20 in 2016.
Both sides observed a "moment of unity" before the game started, with the England squad wearing the anti-discrimination slogans which have become familiar.
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood
Sri Lanka: 1 Danushka Gunathilaka, 2 Avishka Fernando, 3 Kusal Perera (capt/wk), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Dhananjaya de Silva, 6 Dasun Shanaka, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Isuru Udana, 9 Akila Dhananjaya, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Nuwan Pradeep