England vs Sri Lanka 1st Test at Leeds Preview

England summer cricket season will start today when they take on Sri Lanka in the first match of 3 test series at Leeds. Two years ago, Sri Lanka made history at Headingley, Leeds, when it snatched a thrilling series win over England off the penultimate ball of the final Test of their two-match series. 

England will look forward to seal the series and definitely like to exploit the home conditions.

England team batting will revolve around captain Cook, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales and Nick Compton as well. Team will also look forward to the allround performance from Moeen Ali. England skipper Alastair Cook is just 36 runs short to become the first Englishman to reach 10,000 runs in Tests.

On the other hand Sri Lankan team performance in the recent times has not been good and team is still working to fill the void left by the retirements of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. "We were thrilled with that, but this is a new series. Sanga and Mahela have left now. So it's time for all these youngsters to take their responsibility and do their jobs. We need to make sure we put up at least 300 ... to put ourselves in the game," said Kaushal Silva

Quotes from the Captains

Alastair Cook on team Sri Lanka: "We know how dangerous Sri Lanka are. They have always punched above their weight.

"It will be a nice moment and you get to join an elite band of Test cricketers. Those guys are far better batters than me. If the moment does come this week it would be a great moment personally," - Cook said when asked about his 10k test runs.

Angelo Mathews: “We have to play our best cricket in the next five days to beat England.

Squads

England

Alastair Cook (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Nick Compton, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Vince.

Sri Lanka

Angelo Mathews (c), Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka, Dhammika Prasad, Dilruwan Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, Dushmantha Chameera, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Milinda Siriwardana, Niroshan Dickwella, Nuwan Pradeep, Rangana Herath, Shaminda Eranga, Suranga Lakma