by 
Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and elected to play against England in the third Test at The Oval on Friday.
Gloomy weather conditions in south London, combined with a green-tinged pitch freshened by morning rain, threatened to make life difficult for the batsmen.
Both teams made changes from last week’s second Test at Lord’s, where England crushed Sri Lanka by 190 runs – their seventh consecutive victory over the islanders – to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in a three-match series.
England handed a debut to 20-year-old left-handed fast bowler Josh Hull in place of Matthew Potts.
Hull, who is 2 metres (6ft 7in), was included despite taking only 16 wickets in 10 first-class matches.
Hull did, however, take five wickets for the second-tier England Lions against Sri Lanka in the tourists’ only warm-up match last month.
Sri Lanka made two changes, with Kusal Mendis returning to the top order after Nishan Madushka was dismissed and left-arm paceman Asitha Fernando recalled in place of left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya as the visitors opted for a four-man seam attack.
England, who blanked the West Indies 3-0 earlier in the season, are aiming for their first home Test match since 2004 when Michael Vaughan oversaw seven wins from seven.
A win for either team at the Oval would also boost their hopes of qualifying for next year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s, with England currently fifth in the rankings and Sri Lanka seventh.
Teams
England: Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (season), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (wkt), Dhananjaya de Silva (captain), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Rathnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando
Referees: Joel Wilson (WIS), Chris Gaffaney (NZL)
TV referee: Paul Reiffel (AUS)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
jdg/ea
