The Sri Lanka cricket team toured England in June and July 2021 to play three

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) and three

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) matches. The ODI series formed part of the inaugural

2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League The 2020–23 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League is the ongoing inaugural edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, a One Day International (ODI) league. The league is taking place from July 2020 to May 2023, and serves as part of ...

. On 4 June 2021,

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) on 30 June 1975 as a national spo ...

(SLC) named a 24-man squad to tour England. However, the tour was initially thrown into doubt the next day, when 38 players signed a statement refusing to sign tour contracts with SLC. After an agreement was reached with the players, SLC confirmed that the tour would go ahead as planned. England won the first two T20Is, by eight wickets and five wickets respectively, to win the series with a game to spare. England went on to win the final T20I by 89 runs, winning the series 3–0. England also won the first two ODI matches to win the series. The third ODI finished as a

no result The result in a game of cricket may be a "win" for one of the two teams playing, or a "tie". In the case of a limited overs game, the game can also end with "no result" if the game can't be finished on time (usually due to weather or bad ligh ...

, after the match was washed out following the completion of Sri Lanka's innings.

Squads

Sri Lanka did not name individual squads for the ODI and T20I matches, opting instead to name a combined squad of 24 players for the tour.

Olly Stone Oliver Peter Stone (born 9 October 1993) is an English cricketer who currently plays for Nottinghamshire and England. Stone is a right-arm fast bowler and right-handed batsman. He was born in Norwich, Norfolk and was educated at Thorpe St Andrew ...

was due to be named in England's ODI squad, but was ruled out of the rest of the season with a stress fracture to his back. As a result,

George Garton George Henry Simmons Garton (born 15 April 1997) is an English international cricketer who plays for the England national cricket team and Sussex County Cricket Club. He is a left-handed Batsman who bowls left-arm fast. He made his internationa ...

earned his maiden call-up to the England team. England's Jos Buttler suffered a calf tear in the first T20I and was ruled out of the rest of the series.

Dawid Malan Dawid Johannes Malan ( ; born 3 September 1987) is an English cricketer who plays internationally for England in all formats. In domestic cricket, he represents Yorkshire, having previously played for Middlesex, and has played in multiple Twent ...

was added to England's ODI squad as Buttler's replacement. Sri Lanka's

Avishka Fernando Weerahandige Inol Avishka Fernando (born 5 April 1998), commonly as Avishka Fernando, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who currently plays limited over internationals for Sri Lanka national team. He plays for Colts Cricket Club in dom ...

was ruled out of the ODI series, after suffering a quadriceps tear in the second T20I match. England's

was also ruled out of the ODI series, due to personal reasons.

Tom Banton Thomas Banton (born 11 November 1998) is an English cricketer. He made his international debut for the England cricket team in November 2019. Domestic and franchise career Banton made his Twenty20 cricket debut for Somerset in the 2017 NatWest ...

was added to England's squad for the third ODI, as cover for Malan. On 28 June 2021,

suspended Kusal Mendis,

Danushka Gunathilaka Mashtayage Danushka Gunathilaka (born 17 March 1991) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who plays as a top-order batter in all forms of the game. He has also been occasionally sidelined due to disciplinary issues. He is currently released on ...

and

Niroshan Dickwella Dickwella Patabendige Dilantha Niroshan Dickwella, known as Niroshan Dickwella (born 23 June 1993), is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays all formats of the game for Sri Lanka. A left-hand batsman, he also plays as a wicket-keeper of ...

after they breached the team's

bio-secure bubble A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarant ...

. All three players were seen in the city centre of Durham, with them all being sent back home ahead of the ODI matches. In July 2021, Sri Lanka Cricket suspended all three of them from playing in international cricket for one year. Sri Lanka Cricket agreed to lift the ban on all three players early, rescinding the punishment in January 2022.

Tour matches

Ahead of the T20I series, Sri Lanka were scheduled to play two one-day tour matches against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. However, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that Sri Lanka would play intra-squad matches instead. A 50-over match and a 20-over match took place at

Old Trafford Cricket Ground Old Trafford is a cricket ground in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1857 as the home of Manchester Cricket Club and has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since 1864. From 2013 onwards it has been known as ...

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T20I series

1st T20I

2nd T20I

3rd T20I

ODI series

1st ODI

2nd ODI

3rd ODI

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sri Lankan cricket team in England in 2021 2021 in English cricket 2021 in Sri Lankan cricket International cricket competitions in 2021 Sri Lankan cricket tours of England