England bowl first, Sri Lanka hand debut to Tharindu Ratnayake


Harry Brook tosses the coin • Getty Images
Toss England chose to bowl vs Sri Lanka
England will bowl first in the 2nd T20I, with Harry Brook not hesitating in opting to chase on a good-looking Sophia Gardens pitch with its usual short, straight boundaries.
Brook's men defended a bumper 254 for 4 in the first T20I on Tuesday, underpinned by the limited overs skipper's 114 not out. They could secure the series with a match to spare, and improve an already impressive run of 21 wins from 25 matches.
England make one change with the return of Jofra Archer for Josh Tongue, an alteration flagged by head coach Brendon McCullum at the start of the series as he looks to manage the workloads of the multi-format quicks. It is Archer's 50th T20I cap.
Meanwhile, Charith Asalanka confirmed Sri Lanka's two changes to side that lost by 114 runs. Ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake makes his white ball debut, with left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka also brought into the XI. Spinners Dunith Wellalage and Maheesh Theeskshana, who conceded 78 between them from 5 overs during the first meeting, make way.
This fixture is also something of a home-coming, second international debut for Aneurin Donald, who returns to boyhood county, Glamorgan, for his second T20I cap. Born in Swansea, Donald came through the ranks at the county before leaving to join Hampshire in 2015. During England's 119-run win on Tuesday in the first T20I at the Utilita Bowl, the 29-year old became the first Glamorgan graduate to play for England in 21 years, since Simon Jones during the 2005 Ashes.
England have won nine of their 11 completed T20Is at Sophia Gardens, with only four won by the team defending a target. Sri Lanka were on the receiving end of eight- and five-wicket defeats on a white-ball tour in 2021.
A brief shower brought on the hover cover after the toss had been completed, but it was removed just over 10 minutes before the scheduled 6.30pm start.
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 Jofra Archer, 10 Sonny Baker, 11 Adil Rashid
Sri Lanka: 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kamil Mishara (wk), 3 Lahiru Udara, 4 Charith Asalanka (capt), 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Dasun Shanaka 7 Wanindu Hasaranga 8 Tharindu Rathnayake, 9 Dilshan Madushanka, 10 Dushmantha Chameera 11 Eshan Malinga
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.