WATCH: Mark Woods’ fiery short ball dismisses clueless Kusal Mendis

Sri Lanka began their tour of England as the opening day of the first Test began in Manchester. The English bowlers had the Sri Lankan batters hopping as they were reduced to 92 for 6 at one stage. 

The incident occurred on the first ball of the 16th over when Mark Wood ran in and bowled a short ball. Kusal Mendis saw the ball rear of the length as he could only fend the ball to the slips. Harry Brook standing in the slips completed an easy catch to send back Kusal Mendis for 24. 

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Earlier in the day, Sri Lankan skipper Dhananjaya De Silva won the toss and chose to bat first. Ben Stokes was already out of the series having suffered an injury during the hundred. This meant that Ollie Pope became the new skipper for the English side. 

Sri Lanka finds themselves in deep trouble

Opting to bat first, former Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was the first to fall when he was out for 2. Gus Atkinson had him caught behind to give Jamie Smith his first catch of the day. 

Chris Woakes then sprang into action as he dismissed Nishan Madushka for 4 and Angelo Mathews for a duck. Kusal Mendis scored 24 runs off 34 balls with 4 fours before falling to Mark Wood. Dinesh Chandimal was soon out as he was sent back for 17 with Shoaib Bashir taking his first wicket. 

Kamindu Mendis batted for 25 balls and scored 12 runs but couldn’t hang around longer as he became the 3rd wicket for Chris Woakes. Skipper Dhananjaya De Silva then hung around as he took the attack to the English bowlers to were batting on 42 at the time of writing. 

England were missing Zak Crawley and this gave a chance for Daniel Lawrence to open the batting. Pacer Matthew Potts came back into the team as he replaced Ben Stokes in the playing XI. 

England XI - Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir

Sri Lanka XI - Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal(w), Dhananjaya de Silva(c), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake