Sri Lanka playing XI for Lord's Test against England announced, Kusal Mendis kicked out

Sri Lanka have announced their playing XI for the second Test against England at Lord's starting on August 28. They lost the first Test in Manchester.

Kusal Mendis has been left out of the second Test at Lord's along with pacer Vishwa Fernando. Pathum Nissanka and Lahiru Kumara have been included in the XI.

The rest of the team remains the same with Sri Lanka opting to go with two specialist pacers and spinners with Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis as backup bowling options.

Sri Lanka lost the first Test against England as they failed to defend 205 in the second innings. Their bowlers kept them in the game throughout the contest bowling England out for 358 in the first innings and putting them in a spot of bother in the second innings as well.

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Meanwhile, Sri Lanka heading into the second Test have decided to drop Kusal Mendia from the XI and include Nishan Madushka. He is a young keeper-batter and has good technique as well. On the other hand, Lahiru Kumara has replaced Vishwa Fernando in the XI, as the left-arm pacer is replaced by a right-arm pacer. Meanwhile, Dinesh Chamdinal has recovered from a thumb injury to retain his place in the XI.

Lord's presents one of the best batting conditions for the visiting team and hence Sri Lanka should look to make the most of it. The pitch has even pace and bounce allowing batsmen to score more runs if they are willing to negate the initial threat from the opposition bowlers.

Heading into the second Test, Sri Lanka are placed fifth on the WTC table and badly in need of points to move up the points table. They last won a Test match in April against Bangladesh and have been wanting of a win to stay relevant in the race to the final.

This will be Sri Lanka's ninth Test match at Lord's, the joint most at any venue after Zimbabwe's Harare. They have played at least that many Tests in six home venues, with the SSC in Colombo top of the pile on 45. Interestingly, Sri Lanka have never won a Test match at Lord's and they have a chance to change the script in the second Test.

Sri Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva has spoken very highly of Pathum Nissanka who has been included in the second Test instead of Kusal Mendis. Nissanka has been Sri Lanka's top-scorer in white-ball cricket since his international debut and he is looking forward to translate that form into red-ball cricket now.

"Overall, Pathum is the best batter in the country at the moment. He has a good mindset and he has a good technique. If we can get him into the team, that's great. I have been talking about it for a while now. I think he will adjust to any format" De Silva said on Nissanka.

Sri Lanka Playing XI for Lord's Test

Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Pathum Nissanka, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya De Silva (C), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake

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