England remove two star players from Test squad due to this massive reason

England National Cricket Team have made massive changes to their Test squad for the series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team. The first game of the series between the teams is underway at the Old Trafford in Manchester.

England have released two players, Jordan Cox and Olly Stone, from the squad for the first Test. This comes after the duo didn't get an opportunity to play in the ongoing game against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team. Rather than being benched the management decided to remove them.

The ECB released the duo so that they can play in the Vitality County Championship Division One, which will begin on 23rd August (Friday). While Cox will be playing for Essex in their match against Hampshire, Stone will feature for Nottinghamshire.

Releasing the official statement, ECB stated: "England Men's Test squad have released Jordan Cox and Olly Stone to play in the next round of the Vitality County Championship Division One starting tomorrow. They will leave Emirates Old Trafford later this morning.

"Cox will play for Essex in their match against Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl, Southampton and Stone will travel to Seat Unique, Riverside for Nottighamshire's visit to Durham,"

Jordan Cox and Olly Stone were included in the England squad because of the injury blow the team faced. Cox was named in the team as a replacement for Zak Crawley, who sustained a finger injury during the Test series against West Indies and was ruled out of the entire series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team.

On the other hand, Olly Stone was included in the team following an injury to uncapped pacer Dillon Pennington, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Skipper Ben Stokes also was ruled out as he clutched his hamstring while playing in The Hundred.

Both Cox and Stone, despite being the replacements, didn't get to play. The team instead preferred Dan Lawrence, who has warmed the bench for quite some time now, to open the innings and Matthew Potts replaced skipper Ben Stokes to shore up the seam attack.

England take command of the first Test against Sri Lanka

Coming to the first Test against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team, the England National Cricket Team took command of the game on Day 1. They were asked to field first, and they came up with a magical effort with the ball as they picked wickets in quick succession of time.

England bundled out Sri Lanka for just 236 runs, with Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir picking three wickets each. Apart from them, Gus Atkinson bagged two wickets while Mark Wood picked one.

After that, they had a decent start with the bat with Ben Duckett (13) and Dan Lawrence (9) batting well in the last session. They would be keen to take the first-innings lead completely outplay the opposition out of the game and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.