England ring changes as Sri Lanka bat first

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first v England

England made three changes for the third ODI of the series against Sri Lanka in Hambantota, with Ian Bell the most high-profile of those players dropped.

Bell made way for Alex Hales, replacing him at No. 3 where he has little experience, with James Tredwell and Harry Gurney also left out for Ben Stokes and Chris Jordan.

It meant England went into the game with Moeen Ali and Joe Root as their only spin options. Sri Lanka, by contrast, had four spin bowling options in their XI.

The Sri Lanka captain, Angelo Mathews, won the toss and elected to bat on a surprisingly dry-looking pitch which is expected to aid the spinners more as the match progresses. England captain, Alastair Cook, admitted he would also have chosen to bat first had he won the toss.

With Mahela Jayawardene missing this game for personal reasons, Thilina Kandamby, the 32-year-old batsman who has not played an ODI since 2011, won a recall. Sri Lanka won the first two games in the seven-match series.

England have lost eight of their last 10 ODIs, with Bell failing to reach 50 in his last eight ODI innings. But he might be forgiven in wondering why he, rather than his captain, has missed out. Cook has only one half-century in his last 18 ODI innings and has not reached 80 since June 2012; 42 innings ago.

Sri Lanka: 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wkt), 4 Thilina Kandamby, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Jeevan Mendis, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Dhammika Prasad, 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Shaminda Eranga

England: 1 Moeen Ali, 2 Alastair Cook (capt), 3 Alex Hales, 4 Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Jos Buttler (wkt), 7 Ravi Bopara, 8 Ben Stokes 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Steven Finn.