By Rex Clementine in London
Sri Lanka opted to leave out Prabath Jayasuriya for the third Test match against England at The Oval as they preferred to play an all seam attack in London.
The weather is expected to be overcast and gloomy and the pitch greenish for the final Test prompting Sri Lanka to play the additional seamer.
Accordingly, left-arm seam bowler Vishwa Fernando will come into the fold and captain Dhananajaya de Silva will have plenty of options with Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Milan Ratnayake being the other seamers. The captain will also have to do lot of bowling now that left-arm spin of Jayasuriya is out of the equation.
The final slot was a close call between Vishwa and Kasun Rajitha, however, Vishwa won the nod ahead of Rajitha due to the left-arm option. Vishwa also had a season of County Cricket in England this year representing Yorkshire.
Sri Lanka also left out struggling opening batsman Nishan Madushka. He was replaced by Kusal Mendis, who will keep wickets. Mendis featured in the first Test at Old Trafford but was dropped for Lord’s. He is expected to bat at number three.
Pathum Nissanka will move up the order opening batting with Dimuth Karunaratne.
Sri Lanka were contemplating a move to bring in Kamindu Mendis to number three, but captain Dhananjaya de Silva wasn’t fond of the move. Kamindu has been in prolific form having already notched up three hundreds and three half-centuries in five Test matches so far. He has been the inform batter in the tour having scored a hundred and a half-century.
Sri Lanka are looking at Kamindu as the long term number three and it might happen during the New Zealand series at home.
“Kamindu has made all his runs at number seven and let him continue at number seven. With him moving up the order will eventually happen, but for the time being let him remain where he is. “We need to have a chat to Kamindu and find out how he feels about it before making the move,” Dhananjaya explained.
England will hand Joshua Hull his Test cap on Friday as he takes Matthew Potts’ place in the side.
Hull, who turned 20 two weeks ago, is a tall left-arm quick, who played the warm-up game against Sri Lanka in Worcester.
Hull doesn’t have the numbers to back his selection after a handful of First Class games for Leicestershire. He has been picked on promise rather than performance.