Why is Chris Woakes not playing today’s 2nd ODI between England and Sri Lanka at The Oval?

Chris Woakes not playing: England have made a couple of changes to their winning combination for the second ODI at The Oval.

During the second ODI of the ongoing Sri Lanka’s tour of England at The Oval, England captain Eoin Morgan has won the toss and chose to field for the second time in the series.

“Hopefully, we can continue our momentum. The further we get into the summer, we want to consistently produce performances and continue the level of intensity we’ve been at so far in our white-ball summer.

“It’s an awesome venue, good memories from 2019 but a chance to build some new ones,” Morgan told Sky Sports Cricket at the toss.

Much like Morgan, Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera also wanted to field first but will have to bat first for the second time in a row. “We were planning to bowl. Most concerned about our batting. Hopefully our batsmen take responsibility and put runs on the board,” Perera told Sky Sports Cricket at the toss.

Why is Chris Woakes not playing today vs Sri Lanka?

Talking about the changes made to their Playing XI, Morgan confirmed that they have recalled two local players in opening batsman Jason Roy and fast bowler Tom Curran. The development means that England had to rest Liam Livingstone and Chris Woakes for this match.

While Morgan didn’t talk about the rationale behind benching Livingstone and Woakes, in particular, one assumes the same has been primarily done to manage Woakes’ workload. Woakes, who has played minimal international cricket in the recent past, getting a rest is doubtlessly arguable but it is what it is.

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Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have made three changes to their Playing XI as Avishka Fernando, Dhananjaya de Silva and Asitha Fernando have replaced Dhananjaya Lakshan, Ramesh Mendis and Praveen Jayawickrama for the second ODI.

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