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September 6, 2024
Sri Lanka are back playing a Test at The Oval for the first time since 1998
The Oval, a historic venue for the final Test of the English summer, is currently the focus of attention. However, England’s men’s cricket team won’t be taking a break. They will quickly shift to a series of eight white-ball matches against Australia, starting just a day after the fifth day of this Test.
For now, Test cricket is the priority, even though Brendon McCullum, who will soon take charge of England’s white-ball teams, might have his thoughts on future plans. The goal is to complete a first summer sweep since 2004, when Michael Vaughan’s team won all their Test matches against New Zealand and the West Indies, setting the stage for a successful Ashes campaign the following year. McCullum and Ben Stokes, who is recovering from a torn hamstring, hope for similar momentum leading up to the big series against India and Australia in 2025.
England’s summer has been smooth so far, following a tough 4-1 loss in India earlier this year. The team has performed well against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, with standout performances from Gus Atkinson, who has taken 33 wickets in five matches and scored a century at Lord’s. Jamie Smith has established himself as the regular wicketkeeper. With the series against Sri Lanka wrapped up, McCullum is giving an opportunity to an exciting new talent, 6ft 7in left-arm bowler Josh Hull, who will make his debut for England.
Looking ahead to the 2025-26 Ashes series, England seems to be planning with a focus on future success, especially with the addition of a fast left-arm bowler like Josh Hull, who can bowl at 90mph. Hull has already shown promise by taking five wickets for England Lions against Sri Lanka during the warm-up series, suggesting that his raw first-class statistics (16 wickets at an average of 62.75) don’t fully capture his potential.
The final Test of the home season is also a crucial opportunity for Ollie Pope to improve his record as Test captain, assuming Ben Stokes is back in charge for the series in Pakistan next month. Pope has scored only 30 runs in four innings so far, with his dismissals often raising concerns. Securing a win in this match would be a significant achievement, but improving his own batting performance could have more lasting benefits.
For Sri Lanka, their first multi-match Test tour during the English summer has not met expectations, and the weather in London this week may not help. Despite some resistance at Lord’s, with Asitha Fernando and Kamindu Mendis showing promise, and Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, and Dhananjaya de Silva contributing with half-centuries in the fourth innings, Sri Lanka has struggled to make a strong impact.
They would certainly have hoped for more than to be fighting for pride at this stage, but two first-innings collapses have left them with too much to do – while Dhananjaya’s decision to bowl at Lord’s threw an inexperienced bowling attack under the bus. A return to south London for their first Test since famously winning at The Oval in 1998 should help raise spirits. If further motivation is needed, Sri Lanka have played four previous three-Test series in England and never been whitewashed.
Here are the results of the last five Tests for each team:
Josh Hull, at 20 years old, is certainly catching attention with his impressive height. He only started making waves in county cricket last summer, notably bowling the final over as Leicestershire won the Metro Bank One-Day Cup. His rise has been rapid this season. In a few appearances in The Hundred, he showed he could bowl at speeds up to 89mph. Although his County Championship stats show just two wickets at an average of 182.50, his success in the Lions game has been more significant for England. Hull is set to become only the second left-arm seamer to play Tests for England since Ryan Sidebottom in 2010.
While England has dominated overall, the leading wicket-taker in the series is Sri Lanka’s Asitha Fernando, with 14 wickets at an average of 20.14. Fernando’s efforts have been noteworthy, including a five-wicket haul at Lord’s, matching Rumesh Ratnayake’s performance from 1991. As Sri Lanka focuses on pace at The Oval, Fernando’s ability to swing the ball both ways will be crucial for their chances of ending the tour on a high note.
England announced on Wednesday that Josh Hull will make his debut, replacing Matthew Potts in the XI. The Oval Test will likely be Dan Lawrence’s last chance to prove himself as a stand-in opener before Zak Crawley returns. The England lineup for the match is:
Sri Lanka has chosen to field a rare four-man pace attack due to the expected pitch conditions, leaving Prabath Jayasuriya out of the squad. They have also made changes to their top order, with Kusal Mendis returning at No. 3, Pathum Nissanka opening, and Nishan Madushka missing out. Angelo Mathews, who has rarely bowled in Tests since 2017, has been practicing in the nets at The Oval and may bowl alongside Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis to cover Jayasuriya’s overs.
Sri Lanka’s lineup is:
This season, The Oval hasn’t been favorable for spin bowlers. In six County Championship matches, only 26 wickets were taken by spinners, compared to 173 by pace bowlers, with Dan Worrall from Surrey leading the way. The recent wet weather and a forecast for ongoing showers, especially on Monday, mean conditions will be quite different from when Sri Lanka’s spin great Muttiah Muralitharan dominated England here 26 years ago.
Sri Lanka has a perfect record in Test matches at The Oval, having won their only previous visit convincingly. Sanath Jayasuriya scored 213 runs to help Sri Lanka chase down England’s total of 445, and Muttiah Muralitharan took 9 wickets for 65 runs, leading Sri Lanka to a 10-wicket victory.
Joe Root recently surpassed Alastair Cook’s record for most Test centuries by an England player at Lord’s and is now just 95 runs away from being the overall leading century-maker. He needs 24 more runs to move past Kumar Sangakkara into sixth place on the all-time list, with Cook’s record next in his sights. Root also reached his 200th catch in the field and is closing in on the top two catch records held by Mahela Jayawardene (205) and Rahul Dravid (210).
Gus Atkinson has a chance to set a new record for the most wickets taken by an England seamer in a home summer. He will break the current record, shared by SF Barnes, Alec Bedser, and James Anderson, if he takes seven more wickets in this match.
Dimuth Karunaratne surpassed Sanath Jayasuriya at Lord’s to become Sri Lanka’s fourth-highest Test run-scorer. He needs 10 more runs to reach 7,000 runs in Test cricket.
“Six foot heaps, bowls left-arm, ranges in pace from 80 to 90 miles an hour. Swings it, not too dissimilar to the likes of Jimmy Anderson. He’s 20 years of age, good farming stock. It’s not a huge gamble, is it?”
Brendon McCullum on England’s latest surprise selection
“We need to score big runs and that’s the biggest fault that we had in the first two Tests. Most of our batters who had got starts didn’t convert. Joe Root is a good example, he converted the starts into hundreds. Others batted around him. One of us need to do that and if that happens we need to get 320 mark in the first innings.”
Dhananjaya de Silva on how his side can improve
Katarzyna Nowak is a seasoned writer with over five years of experience in editorial content, news reporting, and cricket sportsbook app reviews. As an author for The Wicket Insider, she combines her deep understanding of the sports betting industry with a passion for cricket, delivering insightful and accurate content that keeps readers informed and engaged.
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