England vs Sri Lanka: How will hosts cope without Ben Stokes? Storylines to follow in Test series

Ahead of England’s three-Test series against Sri Lanka, we take a closer look at five storylines you need to follow…

How will England fare without Stokes?

There are many things teams do not want to happen just before a Test series. One of the biggest is losing your skipper to injury. Sadly for England, that is exactly what happened with Ben Stokes.

Stokes was carried off during The Hundred after pulling up while batting for Northern Superchargers against Manchester Originals, with scans subsequently confirming a left hamstring tear that will rule him out for the rest of the summer.

Vice-captain Ollie Pope will now lead against Sri Lanka as England look to continue their Bazball philosophy without one of its chief creators, Stokes, on the field.

Sky Sports Cricket’s Nasser Hussain said: “You’re not going to suddenly have Pope come in and be a bit timid and change the plans. The continuity, the messaging, will be absolutely the same. He won’t change any of that.

“I don’t think [captaincy] comes as naturally to him as it does for Stokes. I see him as a bit of a worrier, so he has to bluff a little bit. But he’s been brought up in the school of Stokes and [Brendon] McCullum, so he will just continue the messaging.”

Bird, plane – or Mark Wood delivery?!

When thinking about how England will use pace bowling across this Test series, there is no better place to start than Mark Wood. Just how fast and can he go? Even closer to 100mph?

Against West Indies in July, he maxed out at 97.1mph and produced the fastest England over since 2006, while he took five wickets for nine runs in a six-over spell of reverse swing to help clinch a 3-0 sweep at Edgbaston.

Wood will be joined by Gus Atkinson, who will be brimming with confidence after a debut to remember in the West Indies series. The Surrey man took 22 wickets, starting with a memorable 12-106 in Jimmy Anderson’s last Test at Lord’s.

They may also be a chance for Olly Stone to really make a mark. Stone will be looking to add to his three Test caps and has been going well for Nottinghamshire but the pressure is on when returning to the England side for the first time in three years.

How Pope uses these three could be crucial to the outcome of the series. But if Wood is at his flying best, Atkinson continues on from his sensational debut, and Stone shows his worth, the pace attack should be a force to be reckoned with.

Lawrence’s time to open

It is presumed that with Zak Crawley (broken finger) absent, England will turn to Dan Lawrence to open the batting.

Lawrence has been included in several England squads but has not played a Test since 2022.

The 27-year-old moved from Essex to Surrey over the winter and has made an impressive start to the County Championship season, averaging 53.09 at a strike rate of 74.68 with two centuries and three fifties.

Lawrence is primarily a middle-order player but would have opened against West Indies had Ben Duckett missed a Test due to the birth of his first child. Now, he looks set to partner Duckett at the top of the order against Sri Lanka.

Are England ready for a confident Sri Lanka?

Just a couple of weeks ago, Sri Lanka completed a historic ODI series victory over India in Colombo. If there is ever such a thing as a confidence booster, that is it, despite being in a different format.

The hosts surged to an emphatic 110-run victory in the third one-day international to win the three-match series 2-0. India had not lost a bilateral ODI series to Sri Lanka since 1997.

Six players from Sri Lanka’s ODI squad – Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Jeffrey Vandersay and Asitha Fernando – have been included in the Test squad that England will face.

Sri Lanka have won five of their last 10 Test series, last completing a 2-0 win over Bangladesh away from home. Before that, they defeated Afghanistan on home soil.

They could pose England with a sterner test than West Indies did, which the hosts should embrace.

‘Refined’ Bazball – will the evolution continue?

Against West Indies, it seemed that England had refined and evolved their Bazball approach. They chose their moments to attack appropriately, only really going for it when required, and showed restraint when the game required them to do so.

“We know we’re not the finished article, but we made a step forward in this series,” head coach McCullum told Sky Sports. “Nothing is ever scripted in terms of our approach and how we want to play.

“It’s about trying to allow the guys to get themselves in a calm dressing room, be able to be totally present in the moment, read the situation, trust themselves and immerse themselves in what the game situation is, then back themselves to let their game unfold and adapt.

“Eighteen months onwards, with the batting group, which is pretty much consistent with that, maybe we’ve just matured a bit and we understand the varying skills our batting group has and we’re trying to be a bit more consistent with the type of players we want to be.”

Now England have the challenge of doing that once again with a potentially tougher opponent and their captain out for the series.

England’s Test series against Sri Lanka

• 1st Test, Emirates Old Trafford – August 21-25
• 2nd Test, Lord’s – August 29-September 2
• 3rd Test, The Oval – September 6-10

England’s three-Test series against Sri Lanka gets under way at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester on Wednesday. Watch live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10am (first ball at 11am).