MANCHESTER: Dan Lawrence will open the batting for England in the first Test of a three-match series against Sri Lanka, while Matthew Potts has been drafted in to compensate for the loss of captain Ben Stokes to injury.

Lawrence has only operated as an opener a handful of times in his first-class career but returns to the England side for the first time in two-and-a-half years after Zak Crawley’s fractured finger opened up a vacancy at the top of the order.

Potts provides an extra bowling option with all-rounder Stokes set to miss the entire series after tearing his hamstring during The Hundred.

Lawrence started out as an opener in his early days with Essex, and scored a half-century for Surrey in April in a rare return to the top, but has made his name as a free-flowing middle-order strokemaker.

In years gone by that might have marked him out as a poor fit to see off the new ball but England’s priorities have changed in the “Bazball” era, with Crawley given licence to go after the bowlers from the word go.

“I think that’s the style of cricket that [coach] Baz McCullum and Ben Stokes are generally after and my general way of going about it is to try and be quite aggressive,” said Lawrence.

“I always try and take the game on and score runs. I think I fit the mould more in that aspect. When I heard about Zak the first thing I thought about was, ‘Am I going to open?’ and I found out very quickly that I was so I’ve had a couple of weeks to get my head around that and get some practice in.”

Potts is also back after a spell out of the side. After a breakout summer in 2022, the Durham seamer played just one Test last year, but gets the opportunity to make his case after being chosen ahead of Olly Stone.

England are looking to build on their 3-0 series win over the West Indies earlier in the summer when the first Test gets underway at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Ollie Pope captains the team in Stokes’ absence, with Harry Brook promoted to vice-captain.

Stokes was with the team as they reported for duty in Manchester and is expected to be part of the dressing room throughout the three-match series.

Squad: Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook (vice-captain), Jamie Smith (wicket-keeper), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood and Shoaib Bashir.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2024