England have announced their playing XI for the first Test against Sri Lanka. The hosts have picked pace bowler Matthew Potts to replace the injured Ben Stokes in the XI and named Harry Brook as the vice-captain to assist Ollie Pope who will be leading England in the absence of Stokes.
Potts' inclusion in the XI means that the hosts will go into the first match of the series with a pace quadrant featuring Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes other than him.
It also paves the way for a promotion in the batting order for the wicket-keeper batter Jamie Smith and Woakes. Smith will bat at number six for the Three Lions whereas Woakes will come in at the number seven position.
Another notable change is the inclusion of Dan Lawrence. Lawrence has been added to the playing XI due to the injury to Zak Crawley. Crawley sustained a finger injury while playing against West Indies during the last Test of the recently concluded three-match series.
The right-handed Lawrence will open the innings alongside the southpaw Ben Duckett and it will allow England to keep their right and left-hand opening combination going.
"I think my natural style is to try and be aggressive, always try to take the game on and score runs," Lawrence was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "Not necessarily as quickly as possible, but try to take every opportunity. And that won't change over the next few weeks. Throughout my whole career, I've played a certain brand of cricket and that has served me well so I'm just going to do the same thing.
"I think it's kind of the style of cricketer that Baz and Stokes are generally after, and my general way of going about it is to try and be quite aggressive. So I think I fit the mould more in that aspect.
"I did actually start my first-class career as an opener and then I've gradually kind of moved up and down as I've gone along. But I'm only really focusing on trying to really enjoy the week. It shouldn't be too much different from batting three or four."
England's Playing XI for the first Test against Sri Lanka:
Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir
