Tomorrow welcomes the start of England's test match cricket summer as the test series between England and Sri Lanka gets underway at Lord's culminating on Monday assuming the full 5 days are needed. It's the start of England's rebuilding process in the Test arena after they were demolished 5-0 on Australian summer from November through to January in a series that saw Graeme Swann retire, Jonathon Trott take leave due to ill health, which he is still on and since then England have also sacked Kevin Pietersen which sparked much debate as to the rights and wrongs of the decision but at the end of the day they need to move on. England's squad of 12 for the first test boasts a lot of new faces including opener Sam Robson who will take the place that Michael Carberry held in Australia and England will also hand a debut to Chris Jordan as they play 4 front line seam bowlers relying on fellow debutant Moeen Ali as a spin option with Joe Root also being able to bowl part time spin.
Sri Lanka's 15 man squad boasts a great deal of talent with a lot of new faces coming into their side from the 50 over side that has just beaten England 3-2 in a tight One Day International series that went down to the final game. If the results in that format are anything to go by (which they aren't most of the time to be honest) Sri Lanka probably have the edge, but in English conditions you have to slightly favour England to get the result, but all eyes will be on the England batsmen this week in particular after their winter collapses.
England
As I said the hosts come into the series with a fairly new team at their disposal with a lot of players coming in for possible debuts while others have only played a handful of matches themselves or could be coming back into the side after international breaks. The top 7 of the side looks to be guaranteed with the squad of 12 England have picked meaning that Sam Robson should open with captain Alastair Cook, while the middle order will contain Joe Root, Gary Balance, Ian Bell, Moeen Ali and Matt Prior will resume the keeping duties. As for the bowlers things are less clear cut but it looks like James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Jordan will start with either Liam Plunkett who has a magnificent start to the season with Durham or Chris Woakes who made his test match debut at the end of the last English test summer. In that department I'd slightly favour Liam Plunkett who has certainly worked on the his bowling since his early test match appearances which came some 8 years ago.
The performances of England's top order will be vital to their chances of victory in this game. Debutant Sam Robson will need to repay the faith the selectors have given him in handing him his debut rather than sticking with Michael Carberry, and his performances for Middlesex suggest that he is really up to the job. Alastair Cook as captain and opening batsman will really want to lead by example and end a poor run of form with the bat that he has really been on for around the last year, possibly even longer. England's middle order looks a little flimsy which is good enough reason to pack plenty of batting into that lower order as possible with Stuart Broad, Chris Jordan and Liam Plunkett all being able to bat to a reasonable standard. However, if Sri Lanka can get some early inroads it may well be up to Ian Bell to score big as Joe Root still doesn't really look at home in the test arena while Moeen Ali is on debut, Gary Balance with very little test experience and Matt Prior on a terrible run of form in the last year or more with the bat. So, there could really be some nervy times in the England dressing room if a couple of early wickets go down.
The emphasis may well be on England's bowling here and as a unit of fast bowlers they actually look quite strong. Stuart Broad's return from injury will be crucial as to how match sharp he will be for this early test while James Anderson looked very impressive in the one-day internationals bowling at a very good pace and Chris Jordan looks like a brilliant young talent who also bowled fantastically in those one-day games as well. The overs bowled by either Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes will be crucial as England will want them to not give too many runs away as both have been known to be expensive in England colours. I don't think overall that Ali's spin will be all that important as his job may be to take up an end so England can keep their 4 fast bowlers fresh later in the day at the other end to take wickets.
Key Man: As I mentioned earlier Chris Jordan bowled brilliantly in the one-day series and if he can start his test match career off well he could not only inspire England to victory but it could also be the start of a long England career for Jordan at the start of a big rebuilding process for the England test match team
Sri Lanka
As I mentioned at the start of the preview Sri Lanka will have a few changes to their team that played in the one-day internationals, most notably the fact that man of the series Lasith Malinga doesn't play in the test match side and neither does spinner Senanyake which is where Rangana Herath should come in. Under captain and key all-rounder Angelo Matthews Sri Lanka should have a bowling line-up fronted by Nuwan Kulasekara and also featuring Rangana Herath, Dhammika Prasad and Shaminda Eranga. Sri Lanka's wicket-keeper of course will be Prassana Jayawardena and Mahela Jayawardena along with Kumar Sangakkara will be the key Sri Lankan batsmen.
As I mentioned there, with an opening partnership not necessarily used to English conditions not playing test cricket here before or playing in the one-day series coming in at 3 and 4 Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara have been key players for Sri Lanka for many years and they will need to be on top form again here or the England fast men could soon tear through the batting line-up, though the latter influence of Angelo Matthews and the keeping Jayawardena should prevent any possible collapses really though they are not the strongest batsmen and they don't necessarily bat as deep as England.
In terms of the bowling Rangana Herath is a top class spin bowler who could have the more inexperienced top order of England's in a lot of trouble if he gets on a roll. Meanwhile Nuwan Kulasekara has an important role as the leader of the Sri Lankan seam attack, even though test cricket hasn't always been his favourite form preferring the one day formats a lot more.
Key Player: For me the experienced head of Mahela Jayawardena needs to show the rest of the batting line-up how it's done really by taking charge and making some big runs in this series as the Sri Lankans look for a good start to the series. Jayawardena will certainly be one of the batsmen England will target and try to get out early if they are to run through the batting order.
It should be a fascinating test match played in pretty good weather on a pretty good Lord's pitch and in my opinion it should be a pretty even contest. England will want to get off to a good start though as they aim to start their test match rebuild with a series win.
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