Eng vs SL, 1st T20I - Sri Lanka bowl first, Donald debuts for England

Sri Lanka will bowl first in the first T20I, after skipper Charith Asalanka called correctly and decided to back his bowlers against a destructive England batting line-up on one of their favourite grounds.

It was at the Utilita Bowl in July that Harry Brook’s men put the finishing touches on a 4-0 series win against India, blitzing 257 for 3 after Shreyas Iyer also decided to chase. As such, Brook was nonplussed by being inserted, particularly on a pitch he thinks will assist the hosts later in the evening.

“Looks very dry,” Brook said at the toss. “Hopefully we can get a bit of purchase out of it second innings and put some pressure on with a big score.”

England announced their starting XI on Monday, with Aneurin Donald making his international debut. Donald will be the first Glamorgan product to play for England since Simon Jones in 2005, and, at 29, is their oldest debutant T20I batter since Dawid Malan in 2017. Donald was presented his cap by new white-ball specialist mentor Kevin Pietersen.

Brook, Jordan Cox – in his first T20I since October 20256 – and Josh Tongue all feature fresh from the Pakistan Test series. Tongue will be swapped out for the second T20I on Thursday for Jofra Archer, who is resting for this match.

Donald has already had a sighter of Sri Lanka, smashing a remarkable 31 from eight deliveries for England Lions at Chelmsford in what was supposed to be a warm-up for the tourists, not the first of two nine-wicket shellackings from the second-string.

Asalanka said there were positives to take from the two matches, though ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake does not seem to be one of them. Though he was the only player to give a good showing with the bat in both, he misses out though Sri Lanka are still able to field three specialist spinners.

England have won each of the last 12 T20Is against Sri Lanka, with Brendon McCullum keen to turn the screw on their opponents in a bid to reclaim the No. 1 ICC ranking they achieved earlier this summer.

England 1 Aneurin Donald, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Harry Brook (capt), 4 Tom Banton, 5 Jordan Cox, 6 Will Jacks, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Josh Tongue, 10 Sonny Baker, 11 Adil Rashid

Sri Lanka: 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kamil Mishara (wk), 3 Kamindu Mendis, 4 Charith Asalanka (capt), 5 Janith Liyanage, 6 Dasun Shanaka, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Danish Wellalage, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Eshan Malinga

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