Sri Lanka win toss, opt to bat first

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Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and chose to bat first against England in their 2019 ICC World Cup match at Headingley on Friday.

England are unchanged from the side that thrashed Afghanistan last time out. Sri Lanka make two changes as Avishka Fernando and Jeevan Mendis come in for Lahiru Thirimanne and Milinda Siriwardana.

In today’s match of ICC cricket World Cup 2019 (CWC), with just four points from five games, Sri Lanka cricket team will aim for an improbable victory and survive in World Cup when they take on hot favourites England cricket team at Headingley in Leeds.

The 1996 champions have managed to win just one game so far, that too against Afghanistan in what was a tense battle for them. The other two points that they have in their kitty are because of the washouts against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

England, led by Eoin Morgan, have been in sublime form, especially with the bat as they posted 300 plus scores in four of the five games — two of them being 386/6 against Bangladesh and 397/6 against Afghanistan.

Head to head in World Cups, England have won 6 out of 10 matches while Sri Lanka won 4.

England XI: James Vince, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wkt), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.

Sri Lanka XI: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Kusal Perera (wkt), Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep.