England vs Sri Lanka: 3rd Test Match Preview

After winning the series, the England team is ready for the final Test of the series at Kennington Oval in London. The home team leads the series after winning two back-to-back games. England will head into the final match aiming to win the series and climb to the top of the ICC World Test Championship standings. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan team will be playing for pride, hoping to end the series with at least one win.

Regarding both teams' positions on the points table, England is currently in 5th place after Bangladesh moved up from 8th to 5th by whitewashing Pakistan in a two-match Test series at home. On the other hand, Sri Lanka sits in 7th place, having won only two out of six matches and holding 24 points.

Pitch Report of Kennington Oval, London:

The final Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka will be played at Kennington Oval, where the surface might offer some seam movement to the fast bowlers early on with the new ball. As the ball gets older, the batters are likely to capitalize on the track’s even pace and bounce to score runs.

Squads:

England:

Ben Stokes (captain), James Anderson (first Test only), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Dillon Pennington, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, and Chris Woakes.

Sri Lanka:

Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (vc), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Kamindu Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Nisala Tharaka, Prabath Jayasuriya, Ramesh Mendis, Jeffrey Vandersay, Milan Rathnayake.

Who will win the match between England and Sri Lanka?

Based on the performances of both teams, it’s clear that England has dominated the 3-match Test series, winning two back-to-back games. However, as this is the final Test, Sri Lanka might step up to challenge the English team in a bid to avoid a whitewash. It will be interesting to see whether Sri Lanka can avoid a series defeat in the ICC World Test Championship 2025 or if England will wrap up the series on a high note and overtake Bangladesh in the standings.