ICC World Cup: Sri Lanka Openers on the Attack to Build Strong Foundation

Australia and Sri Lanka look for their maiden success in their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 clash in Lucknow.

Mitchell Starc managed to extract movement with the swinging ball early on in the Sri Lanka innings. He hit the pads of Pathum Nissanka off the very first ball, and Australia went up for a review after being turned down. However, they lost the review after it turned out that there was an inside edge.

The Sri Lanka openers let out a number of quality drives and cuts over the next few overs to get the innings going.

Sri Lanka's new skipper Kusal Mendis called it right at the toss and elected to bat first. He opined that a total in the range of 280-300 would be safe for his side, and that the ball might do a bit more under the lights.

Chamika Karunaratne and Lahiru Kumara came into Sri Lanka's XI in place of Dasun Shanaka and Matheesha Pathirana, while Australia went with the same side that played against South Africa.

Sri Lanka received a blow leading into the game in the form of a quad injury to their skipper Dasun Shanaka. The all-rounder has been ruled out of the tournament, with Mendis taking the captaincy reins.

Australia enjoy a head-to-head advantage over Sri Lanka, having won 63 games to 35 losses, but the Lions have proven to be a handy customer in Asia. Here the sides are evenly matched in the results column, with 18 successes to each of them.

Playing XIs

Australia: Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (c) (wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Chamika Karunaratne, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka, Lahiru Kumara

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