England locked horns with Sri Lanka as Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bat first in their ODI World Cup clash at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday, October 26.
Injured Reece Topley missed out of crunch clash due to finger injury and has flown back to England. Meanwhile, Buttler dropped Chris Woakes and Harry Book to bring in Atkinson, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone in England's Playing XI.
On the other hand, Kusal Mendis included veteran Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Kumara in Sri Lanka's playing XI.
After the toss England skipper Buttler said,"Jos Buttler: We are going to bat first. Looks a good wicket, little bit drier but we will look to put up a good score. We have been short of our best, we have done enough talking and it is about performing. We have stayed very level as a group, there is some frustration around for not playing as well as we could but there is quality in the team individually and collectively. Throughout the team (there needs to be contributions). We have three changes - Topley has returned home with a broken finger, Woakes, Moeen and Livingstone come in. Atkinson misses out, Brook is out and we have changed our combination."
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis said,"Pitch is good and we were looking to bat first as well. I am enjoying the captaincy. There are players who are advicing me and supporting me. The last match we did well with bat and ball. Very important game, we need a good start with the ball and if we get that then we can manage the game. He (Mathews) comes into the team, most experienced guy in the team and hopefully he does well today. Angelo and Kumara are playing."
Pitch Report
"Pitch no. 8 today. Pitch no. 9 had over 650 runs scored in the game between Australia and Pakistan. This might be a little bit drier, a little bit on the slower side but on the surface it is a good track where the ball will come on to the bat. The dimensions remain the same; 73 straight, 53 behind, 61 and 67 on the side," informs Ravi Shastri. "It is a very interesting pitch, there's a lot of grass in the center of the pitch, but see where it is (while standing in batters position), it is devoid of grass. Batting against spin for left-handers will be interesting. This is the kind of pitch where you need to have a right-left combination because the pitch will play differently on both sides. There will be a bit of turn and that's because of the dry surface, it is like a honeycomb. IT is going to be a challenge for batting," Dinesh Karthik analysed the pitch.
England's Playing XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
Sri Lanka's Playing XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis(w/c), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka.
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