England will be without Jos Buttler for the deciding one-day international against Sri Lanka at The Kia Oval on Sunday, after the wicketkeeper-batter was ruled out with a left hamstring injury. The three-match series is level at 1-1. The match is scheduled to begin at 10.30 a.m. local time — 3.00 p.m. in Colombo.
Buttler pulled up while running between the wickets in the 38th over of England’s chase at Headingley on Thursday. He was treated by England physio Steve Haw, faced two more balls and retired hurt, then briefly returned later in the innings before being caught. His 69 was his highest ODI score in three years.
England do not yet know how serious the injury is and expect more information early next week, once Buttler has had an MRI scan. Now 36, he has had a run of soft-tissue problems in recent years — mostly calf injuries, although he also had a similar left-hamstring issue during the 2024 IPL season.
Jordan Cox is expected to take the gloves in his place, ahead of Tom Banton, in what would be only his fourth ODI appearance.
Dan Lawrence has been added to the squad as cover. The Surrey batter has yet to win an England cap in either white-ball format, and was withdrawn from his county’s Championship match at Somerset after making his sixth hundred of the season on Thursday. He trained with the ODI squad at The Oval on Saturday. Lawrence has played only 28 List A matches, the most recent in May 2019, and was called into England’s ODI squad in 2021 when the first-choice side went into Covid isolation, without playing a game.
Kevin Pietersen, England’s new white-ball mentor, said on Thursday night that openings created by injury would help build depth before next year’s World Cup. “[We need to] have certain players in certain positions, in order for us to know that if something like this happens to Jos … somebody can step up into Jos’s boots — like we’re going to need to have on Sunday,” he said.
Sri Lanka go into the decider having won at Headingley by 16 runs, their first win of the series after defeat at Chester-le-Street.
Note on the reporting
The Daily Mirror describes Lawrence as Buttler’s replacement; ESPNcricinfo reports him as squad cover, with Cox the likely replacement in the XI. The Daily Mirror also gives Sri Lanka’s Headingley total as “321 for nine” — the ESPNcricinfo scorecard records Sri Lanka 321 for 6 in 50 overs, with England finishing on 305 for 9.
