🏏Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #25: England vs Sri Lanka on 26 Oct 🏏 - Page 3

Looking ahead to this game, Alan Gardner perhaps summarised it best as "stragglers in desperate search for points". But desperation aside, England ought to still be relative favourites heading into this tie, simply by virtue of their recent white-ball pedigree, but in Sri Lanka they face aside with even less to lose. Indeed, if England's campaign can at this point be categorised as deeply underwhelming, Sri Lanka's has been a veritable shambles. An already injury-struck side has been further decimated by the losses of skipper Dasun Shanaka and seamer Matheesha Pathirana. This has seen Kusal Mendis stumbling into the role of captain, and Angelo Mathews quite improbably about to make his fourth ODI World Cup appearance.

Whether Mathews will in fact come straight into the side remains to be seen, but his pre-match briefing did indicate that he would slot right into that lower middle order.

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Pitch report: Ravi Shastri says the pitch today might be a little bit on the slower and dryer side, but still very good to bat on. There's a lot of grass on the centre of the pitch but less closer to the batting crease, so the bowlers need to exploit the rough patches. There could be some turn as well, which means it won't all be one-way traffic for the batters.

In terms of what to expect from this game, if recent results are anything to go by, in a word: runs. While Mathews has been speaking of fighting fire with fire, Moeen Ali has also been fanning those flames with talk of going out with a bang, and in that sense his comments about the importance of batting deep at the Chinnaswamy speak towards that.

Pitch and Conditions: "Pitch no. 8 today. Pitch no. 9 had over 650 runs scored in the game between Australia and Pakistan. This might be a little bit drier, a little bit on the slower side but on the surface it is a good track where the ball will come on to the bat. The dimensions remain the same; 73 straight, 53 behind, 61 and 67 on the side," informs Ravi Shastri. "It is a very interesting pitch, there's a lot of grass in the center of the pitch, but see where it is (while standing in batters position), it is devoid of grass. Batting against spin for left-handers will be interesting. This is the kind of pitch where you need to have a right-left combination because the pitch will play differently on both sides. There will be a bit of turn and that's because of the dry surface, it is like a honeycomb. IT is going to be a challenge for batting," reckons Dinesh Karthik.

Pitch and Conditions: "Pitch no. 8 today. Pitch no. 9 had over 650 runs scored in the game between Australia and Pakistan. This might be a little bit drier, a little bit on the slower side but on the surface it is a good track where the ball will come on to the bat. The dimensions remain the same; 73 straight, 53 behind, 61 and 67 on the side," informs Ravi Shastri. "It is a very interesting pitch, there's a lot of grass in the center of the pitch, but see where it is (while standing in batters position), it is devoid of grass. Batting against spin for left-handers will be interesting. This is the kind of pitch where you need to have a right-left combination because the pitch will play differently on both sides. There will be a bit of turn and that's because of the dry surface, it is like a honeycomb. IT is going to be a challenge for batting," reckons Dinesh Karthik.

England have won the toss and have opted to bat

England have won the toss and have opted to bat

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England have won the toss and have opted to bat

We are ready for the toss. The two captains are out there. Buttler will spin. Tail is the call. Heads it is..