London, June 26:
England captain
Nasser Hussain will be hoping his side's domination over Sri
Lanka will continue when the two sides contest a one-day
international at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
England completed a 2-0
Test series victory over Sri Lanka earlier this month and
Hussain will hope to translate that form into the limited-overs
arena where India will complete the line-up for the triangular
trophy.
Hussain will however be
worried by England's limited-overs form after his side crashed
to an eight-wicket defeat to Wales at Sophia Gardens on Monday.
England struggled to score 189 runs and couldn't snare more than
two Welsh wickets as they slumped to defeat. The defeat to Wales
showed how much Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick withdrawals
through injury has depleted the England bowling attack.
Gough is doubtful to
take part in the series after injuring his knee, while Caddick
is ruled out after suffering a side strain in last week's Test
match at Old Trafford. The withdrawal of the strike pairing will
benefit Ronnie Irani and James Kirtley who make their returns to
the international arena.
All-rounder Irani has
not played international one-day cricket for five years but he
was drafted into the squad after a string of impressive
performances for Essex this season. While Sussex paceman Kirtley
was recalled after his bowling action was scrutinized by the
International Cricket Council (ICC) when questions were raised
on England's one-day tour of Zimbabwe last year.
England's chairman of
selectors David Graveney is pleased to have both players back
for the one-day series. "Ronnie Irani has been in the form of
his life for Essex this summer," he said, adding: "James Kirtley...has
done a lot of remedial work on his action."
The Sri Lankan
selectors meanwhile made several changes ahead of the triangular
series, replacing six players for the limited-overs trophy.
One-day specialists
Avishka Gunawardena, Chamara Silva, Naveed Nawaz, Pramodya
Wickremesinghe and Romesh Kaluwitharana will replace Aravinda de
Silva, Hashan Tillekeratne, Prasanna Jayawardena, Ruchira
Perera, Thiland Samaraweera and Erik Upashantha.
The new additions
helped Sri Lanka clinch confidence-boosting victories over
Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire ahead of the Trent Bridge
clash. However, the 1996 World Champions will struggle to
overcome the loss of off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who was
sent home earlier this month after aggravating a shoulder
injury.
Muralitharan, so often
Sri Lanka's match-winner, has been highly-effective in
international limited-overs cricket with 276 wickets from 188
matches. Yet with Muralitharan out injured, Chaminda Vaas will
lead the wicket-shy Sri Lankan attack which will aim to
frustrate their opponents and hope their explosive batting
line-up led by Sanath Jayasuriya can save the day.
India will play their
first match of the triangular series against England at Lord's
on Saturday. The tourists are struggling for form, losing by 21
runs to Kent on Monday.
Former England
all-rounder Mark Ealham was destroyer-in-chief smashing a
run-a-ball 74 before he raced through the Indian tail to claim
four wickets. Monday's defeat showed that the Indians lack a
fearsome strike bowler after Javagal Srinath's unexpected
retirement after the West Indies tour earlier this year.
Left-arm seamers Zaheer
Khan and Ashish Nehra will share the new-ball but India's
thin-bowling attack was exposed by Kent who feasted on the
punchless attack for 284 runs. Indian coach John Wright will
once again have to rely on the glittering middle order of Sachin
Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Venkatsai Laxman to
bludgeon India to victory.
However, the tourists
will have to overcome a mental barrier in order to win the June
27 to July 13 triangular series as India have earned the dubious
reputation of choking under big-match pressure after losing nine
one-day finals involving three or more teams since April 1999.