Stage set for Sri Lanka to turn the tide and pounce on England

England have a well-rounded team and recent success against Sri Lanka but carry blemishes from their group-stage games

Andrew Miller

Feb 21, 2026, 3:29 PM • 4 mins ago

2:19

Maharoof: Buttler, Salt's form 'a little bit alarming'

Big picture: England, Sri Lanka return to their happy place

It's a measure of England's messed-up psyche right now that the start of the Super Eight might finally be the moment that they can relax into their T20 World Cup campaign. The prologue is done, the terrifying mights of Nepal, Scotland and Italy have been put (just about) in their places. Harry Brook's men can take a deep, cleansing breath, and prepare to face [checks notes] the tournament co-hosts at the scene of one of the most wildly acclaimed victories in their recent history.

Pallekele was the stage, just under a week ago, for Sri Lanka's turbo-charged victory over a shell-shocked (and soon-to-be-eliminated) Australia. One minute the Aussies were 104 for 0 in the ninth over, and the hosts themselves were the ones contemplating an anxious exit from an unexpectedly competitive Group B. The next thing you knew, their spinners had ripped out Australia's soul, and Pathum Nissanka had come howling through the breach with his wonderful 52-ball century.

Pallekele's passionate, opinionated, fanbase made their presence felt that night, and as the concurrent scenes in Colombo have indicated, Sri Lanka is somewhat gripped by World Cup fever right now - notwithstanding their team's shock loss to a surging Zimbabwe in their final group game.

Related

'Fielding in Pallekele will prove a different challenge' - Sridhar

Brook leans on Pallekele past but wary of Sri Lanka's batting

Spin turns Harry Brook off, but he's turning England on to it

That six-wicket defeat made no odds to the Super Eight, with the pre-seeded pools now awkwardly featuring all the group winners on one side of the draw and all the runners-up on the other. But it was conceivably an untimely bump back to earth, just in time for Sri Lanka's reunion with a familiar set of foes. England won five matches out of six on their white-ball warm-up tour of the country last month, including three out of three in the T20I leg.

None of these wins were emphatic, but each of them was sealed by subtly different means - Adil Rashid's spin strangle in game 1, Tom Banton's middle-order awakening in game 2, Sam Curran's guts and glory on a tricky turning deck in game 3, in which England's back-up tweakers, Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell applied the coup de grace.

The net effect was to give the impression of a well-rounded England team, one that was ready to march into the main event with form to fall back on and faith in their myriad methods. And while that might still be the case in an eminently surmountable Group 2 which also features the known unknowns of New Zealand and Pakistan, the sheer terror of those near-misses against Nepal and Italy cannot be easily forgotten. Nor the disturbing passivity of their old-school trouncing in Mumbai by West Indies.

The stage is therefore set for Sri Lanka to pounce on the big occasion, as they have often done in the recent past, most notably with their wins at the 2019 and 2023 ODI World Cups, when their brace of victories went against the grain of their one-sided bilateral records.

Sri Lanka's batting has broadly fired across the group stages, with Nissanka leading the line and Kusal Mendis contributing a trio of fifties in four matches, but agonisingly they'll have to take the stage without the raw pace of Matheesha Pathirana, whose slingy action had England's top order in all sorts of bother throughout their bilateral engagements. He lasted just four balls of the Australia game before succumbing to a calf strain, and has been replaced by Dilshan Madushanka.

Form guide

Sri Lanka: LWWWL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)

England: WWLWW

In the spotlight: Pathum Nissanka and Adil Rashid

Pathum Nissanka joined a curiously niche club when he smoked Australia to the brink of elimination last week. Only Chris Gayle before him had managed a T20 World Cup hundred, in addition to an ODI double-hundred and a century in all three formats - and if he's got some way to go to match Gayle's twin Test 300s, then a career-best 187 in his last series against Bangladesh suggests he's tracking in the right direction. England did not see the best of him in the bilateral series just gone, but they'll remember it alright. At The Oval in 2024, he blazed a superb fourth-innings 127 not out from 124 balls to swipe the third Test from under his opponents' noses. At a time when England's own batting lacks a touch of bravado, Nissanka is perfectly placed to steal a march once again.

2:12

Maharoof: 'Rashid's four overs will be crucial for England's chances'

Adil Rashid has been an unlikely barometer of England's struggles. On his day, he remains absolutely integral to his team's hopes of adding to the silverware that he has been instrumental in collecting over the course of the past decade. In England's loss to West Indies, he did not concede a single boundary in serving up figures of 2 for 16 in four overs, while a combined haul of 5 for 69 in 12 in Pallekele last month suggests he will be right back on the mark on his return to a happy hunting ground. In between whiles, however, he has been treated with rare disdain by a succession of Associate batters, serving up combined figures of 4 for 121 in 11 overs, including a brutal outing of 3-0-42-0 against Nepal. Part of that might come down to a lack of inhibition from a succession of unfancied opponents who had licence to take him on. But with Brook's tournament strategy leaning so heavily on spin, England cannot afford many more bad days from their veteran. They aren't programmed to cope when he goes missing.

Team news: Wood for Overton on the cards

England's nerves haven't been settled, but their team certainly has. Their depth of batting and bowling options came to the fore on their previous trip to Pallekele, and while there's no expectation of wholesale changes, Brook did hint that some tweaks might be needed to avoid becoming predictable. Whether those are personnel or positional remain to be seen, although Luke Wood's skiddier left-arm seam might be restored in place of Jamie Overton's heavier lengths. The cut to Jacob Bethell's bowling hand (sustained during the match against West Indies), may prevent him from bowling, because those fingers are still strapped. Brook hoped he'd recover in time, however.

England: (probable) 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (capt), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Luke Wood, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid

Pramod Madushan made his first appearance of the campaign in the Zimbabwe defeat, with Dushmantha Chameera taking a break with qualification already assured. That short-term arrangement is likely to be reversed, with Madushanka keeping his spot.

Sri Lanka: (probable) 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 Pavan Rathnayake, 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 7 Dunith Wellelage, 8 Dushan Hemantha, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Dilshan Madushanka, 11 Dushmantha Chameera

Pitch and conditions: Runs on offer

The pitch will be the same as the one that was distinctly under-used for Australia's one-sided win over Oman on Friday. Just 27 overs were needed on a deck that seemed pretty good for batting, in spite of Adam Zampa finding enough turn to skittle Oman for 104. It has been rolled since, so should play true once more.

Stats and trivia:

England have won each of their last 11 T20Is against Sri Lanka, dating back to 2014

Adil Rashid has dismissed both Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera every time he has bowled to them in T20Is

Quotes

"Not sure yet. The rule with the strapping on your fingers isn't quite helping because he's got a decent cut in his finger. So he'd have to have strapping on his finger but if there's some way we can get around that then we'd like to bowl him but at the minute I don't think it's possible."

Harry Brook on whether Jacob Bethell is fit to bowl

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket

Click here to read article