Stand by your beds! The covers are being peeled off in Pallekele.
Updated
No news is probably bad news I’m afraid. There is some epic sport taking place right now though and I don’t mean my elite oeuf scrambling. Djokovic and Sinner are locked in a fifth set over in Melbourne in the men’s Aussie Open semi final. If Djokovic gets there he’ll be the oldest in open era to do so, if he wins the thing then it’ll be his much coveted 25th Grand Slam title. I mean, the guy is ancient – 38 years old. Thirty Eight. (Ahem).
Katy Murrells is on the tools for us here:
Updated
The tarpaulins have been hauled on, which is not good. The whole outfield is now covered and steady rain is falling. So confident am I that we aren’t going to get an update any time soon that I’m off to pad into the kitchen and scramble some eggs.
Before I crack into some Burford Brown’s (very Guardian?) wait a minute, where’s Rooty?
Further bad news, the rain has returned and the covers are being pulled back on in Kandy. We await official news…
In the meantime, here’s Taha on a sorry tale:
Gah. Spoke too soon, the toss is delayed by fifteen minutes while the ground staff complete some clean up. Never mind, we have plenty of pre-match reading for you to get stuck into. Not all of it that uplifting, mind.
The good news is that the toss is about to happen and we should be underway on time.
Taha Hashim is our man at the ground, he’s been covering Jofra’s return and speaking to another player to return to the T20 fold – Phil Salt:
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the first of three T20 Internationals between Sri Lanka and England from Kandy. After pulling off a series win in the longer stuff Harry Brook and his men are now getting down to brass tacks with the shorter format.
The T20 World Cup starts in a little over a week and these matches are the final tune up, after a disastrous Ashes campaign it is fair to say that higher level jobs are in the spotlight and immediate futures will likely hinge on how England perform in the tournament.
Some good news – Jofra Archer is back ahead of schedule after pulling his side in Australia, he wasn’t initially named in the squad to play these matches but his early return is a boon for Harry Brook.
Play will begin at 1.30pm GMT all being well, there are reports of some inclement weather in Kandy at the moment, whether the players are perched on the ground in the pouring rain, trying to make themselves a sail… remains to be seen.
I’ll be here OBOing for ya.
