England announce squad for Sri Lanka Tests

England will take on Sri Lanka in a three-match Test series starting on Wednesday, August 21 in Manchester. England won their previous Test assignment West Indies 3-0 and just have to keep winning every red-ball match they play in the current cycle to have a chance of making it to the WTC final.
England have announced a 14-member squad for the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka, set to kick off on Wednesday, August 21 at Old Trafford in Manchester. The squad is more or less similar to the one that played in the 3-0 series win against the West Indies, apart from the two forced changes with opener Zak Crawley and pacer Dillon Pennington getting ruled out due to their respective injuries.

Crawley suffered a finger injury during the third Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston and hence was ruled out of the Hundred and subsequently the Sri Lanka series. Daniel Lawrence, the spare batter will open the innings in Crawley's absence alongside Ben Duckett. Essex's Jordan Cox has earned a maiden call-up following a terrific season in the County Championship and will be cover for the three Tests.

Pennington, on the other hand, stayed on the bench for the whole Test series and the first match he played in the Hundred for the Northern Superchargers against the Oval Invincibles a couple of days ago, he suffered a hamstring injury.

"Seam bowler Dillion Pennington, who featured in the Test squad during the recent series victory over the West Indies, will also miss the series after sustaining a hamstring injury while playing in The Hundred competition," ECB stated in the release.

Replacing Pennington in the squad as the extra pace option will be Olly Stone, who returns to the Test squad for the first time in three years. Stone with injury concerns over him, has been in terrific form for the Notts and has done well in the few games so far in the Hundred for the London Spirit. The series begins in Manchester on August 21 with the next two games to be played from August 29 at Lord's and September 6 at the Oval.

England's Test squad for Sri Lanka series: Ben Stokes (c), Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (vc), Joe Root, Jordan Cox, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir, Olly Stone, Matt Potts