Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and elected to field against England in the third Test at the Oval on Friday.
Gloomy overhead conditions in south London, allied to a green-tinged pitch freshened by early morning rain threatened to make life tough for the batsmen.
Both teams made changes from last week’s second Test at Lord’s, where England overwhelmed Sri Lanka by 190 runs — their seventh win in a row against the islanders — to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in a three-match series.
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England gave a debut to towering 20-year-old left-arm fast bowler Josh Hull, in place of Matthew Potts.
The 6 feet, 7 inches (2 metres) tall Hull was included despite having taken just 16 wickets in 10 first-class matches.
Hull, however, took five wickets for the second-string England Lions against Sri Lanka in the tourists’ lone warm-up match last month.
Sri Lanka made two changes, Kusal Mendis returning to the top order after Nishan Madushka was dropped and left-arm paceman Asitha Fernando recalled in place of left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya as the visitors opted for a four-man seam attack.
England, who whitewashed the West Indies 3-0 earlier in the season, are bidding for their first home Test campaign clean sweep since 2004 when Michael Vaughan oversaw seven wins from seven.
Victory for either side at the Oval would also be a boost to their hopes of qualifying for next year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s, with England currently fifth in the standings and Sri Lanka in seventh place.
Teams
England: Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (capt), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wkt), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (wkt), Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Rathnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando