**Saturday, June 17th **
Venue: Lords
Timings:
US (CST): 4:45am - June 17th
GMT: 9:45 am- June 17th
PST: 2:25pm- June 17th
**Strauss calls for England revival **
Captain Andrew Strauss says England must make light of their injury crisis and start the one-day series against Sri Lanka with a win at Lord’s.
England have eight players out after a recent catalogue of misfortune.
Glenn Chapple and Ed Joyce, two of the five new caps drafted into the squad, have themselves picked up injuries and will miss the entire series. Strauss said: “We want the new players to perform the same way as they do every week for their counties.”
England’s third-choice skipper in the absence of both Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff, Strauss said momentum would be a key factor through the five-match series.
He said: "During the two one-day series in the winter which we lost we discovered that winning becomes a habit. "You expect to win even when you are in a tight situation.
"Now we have an opportunity to get some momentum going at the start of the series.
“We did quite well last year against Australia so we are capable of beating any side in the world.”
Strauss admitted, however, that when new players had been introduced into the Test arena they often proved an immediate success, in marked contrast to the performance of newcomers in one-day internationals.
"In a Test you don’t think about altering your game-plans. One-day cricket forces you to get out of your comfort zones.
“There is no substitute for experience. Sides that have won World Cups have had a lot of experienced batsmen.”
One of England’s main targets will be for individual batsmen to bat through innings and make big scores.
“If we get five hundreds in this series we will win comfortably,” said Strauss. England will have much to discuss during their evening team meeting before deciding what side to play on Saturday.
They have to decide on an opening partner for Marcus Trescothick, with Strauss himself an obvious contender.
Ian Bell is likely to come back into the side after being left out of the Twenty20 international to replace Joyce.
Him and Paul Collingwood may have a lot of bowling to do if the inexperienced seamers come under pressure on what is likely to be a fine batting surface at Lord’s.
Chapple has been replaced by Worcestershire’s Kabir Ali in the squad, but England have not yet called for any further batting cover although Joyce is almost certain to miss the whole series.
Sri Lanka, whose narrow Twenty20 win over England followed defeats to two counties in one-day matches, will bring back Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan after they were rested on Thursday.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene said: "Winning is a good habit and under pressure [at the Rose Bowl] guys performed, which is all positive,
"It gave us a lot of confidence, especially without Vaas and Murali in the side. “It’s good because we want to have a squad of players we can take through to the World Cup so, if we have injuries, we have adequate back-up.”
England (from):
Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Jamie Dalrymple, Stephen Harmison, Geraint Jones, Alex Loudon, Sajid Mahmood, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Marcus Trescothick, Kabir Ali.
Sri Lanka (from):
M Jayawardene (captain), K Sangakkara (wkt), M Muralitharan, S Jayasuriya, U Tharanga, T Dilshan, C Kapugedera, R Arnold, F Maharoof, C Vaas, L Malinga, D Fernando, R Perera, M Bandara.
SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/5087798.stm