MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first Wednesday on a dry, hard pitch and under some clouds at Old Trafford in the first test of the three-match series.
England, which is coming off a 3-0 series win over West Indies, was without captain Ben Stokes in Manchester because of a torn hamstring sustained in a domestic game this month. Ollie Pope was filling in as captain and Dan Lawrence was deputizing as opener for Zak Crawley, who broke a finger in the West Indies series.
Pope said he would have chosen to bowl first if he had won the toss.
Sri Lanka gave a debut to fast bowler Milan Rathnayake, chosen ahead of Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara, at the start of its first test series in England since 2016.
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Teams:
England: Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir.
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva (captain), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Milan Rathnayake.
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