England have won the toss and chosen to bowl at Chester-le-Street, against a substantially depleted Sri Lanka side featuring three debutants.
The suspension of the three cricketers who breached the bio-bubble on Sunday night, plus injuries to Avishka Fernando and Dhananjaya de Silva, and a fever to Oshada Fernando have left Sri Lanka with little choice but to fall back on less experienced players within the squad.
The debutants are allrounders Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya Lakshan, and left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama. On top of which Ramesh Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Dhananjaya Lakshan and Binura Fernando have all played fewer than seven ODIs.
In fact, England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, has more ODI caps under his belt than the entire Sri Lanka XI combined.
For England, there is a slight surprise at the top of the order, with Liam Livingstone to partner Jonny Bairstow there after Dawid Malan left the squad for personal reasons. Joe Root also returns to the XI, claiming his 150th ODI cap. David Willey was presented with his 50th ODI cap by his father, Peter.
England are ranked fourth in ODIs on top of being world champions. Sri Lanka are ranked ninth.
England: 1 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 2 Liam Livingstone, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 David Willey, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Adil Rashid
Sri Lanka: 1 Kusal Perera (capt, wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Charith Asalanka, 4 Dasun Shanaka, 5 Ramesh Mendis, 6 Dhananjaya Lakshan, 7 Chamika Karunaratna, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Binura Fernando, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Praveen Jayawickrama
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent. @afidelf
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