In any case, Buttler isn't test match material, yet.

No he will be pigeon holed into the odi format.

Buttlerr is the best young destructive batting talent we have. What better series tk blood him in? Not the ashes. They will probably pick prior and learn nothing. Spinner-not a clue. Rashid maybe. Patel, ali or borthwick as a batman who bowls a bit? Opening bat with cook-maybe robson who I have never seen or compton.

Cheers Englandwhoelse

Ill delete mine to avoid confusion

Good because I did mine first anyway.

Should be a good test series.. Expect England to win, but will be a lot close than back in 2011- Lanka were woeful...

To be honest. I don't know much about most of the sri-lanka team..
there will be changes from the odi.. I doubt malinga will play.
I hope they leave grass on the wickets.. Lords can get very flat,
We all want results in test cricket.if the weather intervene you cant help that. But given enough time. a pitch should produce an outcome.
550 plays 500 .. not for me. unless the scoring rates are high. Your just not gonna get a result.

Cook, Robson, Bell, Root, Ballance, Patel/Rashid, Stokes, Prior, Jordan, Broad, Anderson (Plunkett 12th, Kerrigan 13th)

If stokes is fit this is how id go into the first test,.
Cook
Robson
Bell
Root
Moeen
Ballace
Buttler
Stokes
Broad
Jordan
Anderson

Plenty of batting all the way down to 10. I'd split the spin bowling between Moeen Ali and Joe Root..
I like Ben Stokes but hes not a number 6 right now. but you can easily get 15/18 overs out of him as 4th change.

No chance of Tredwell, Riley has replaced him at Kent.

Root says he wants to bat 4. He will not open.

I think it will be:

Cook, Robson, Bell, Root, Ballance, Ali, Prior wk, Jordan, Broad, Finn, Anderson

Didnt Stokes wack a century in Oz at six?

But I agree, let him settle down the order first.

Think he is only just back from injury.

My personal choice would be:

Cook c
Robson
Bell
Root
Vince
Ali
Prior wk
Stokes
Jordan
Broad
Anderson

I like the idea of a few new caps together. maybe they will all grow together and push each other onto perform.

Did anyone see the tweet from KP? apparenty on twitter. hes available for a week on Thursday.

I would give Carberry the 2 tests v Sri Lanka after the Ashes .Got starts and I think should have a go against a lesser attack.

The problem with Carberry hes to old and he will never score runs against a good attack. time to move on.

Better to give a young player a chance against a weakish bowling attack than someone like Carberry who will get exposed again against a better bowling lineup.

I think the team will be Cook, root, ballance, bell, Morgan, stokes, prior, broad, Jordan, tredwell, anderson.

Spin option is the biggest issue. There is no one. Can Tredwell bowl consistently for potentially 30 or 40 overs? Monty an option? Possibly.

I would stick with Prior for the time being as WK. Yes he had a terrible couple of Ashes series but he deserves a second chance, as his wicketkeeping is very good. Would be looking to get Buttler in for 2016 unless Prior can't find any form.

We miss an in form Trott at the top of the innings. Not long ago when we had Cook, Strauss, Trott, Pietersen and Bell that was a very solid top order. Now Cook can't buy a run, has no established opening partner and number three is unknown. Think any opening three of Cook, Root and Ballance would be way too one dimensional. Interesting decisions to be made.

Squad Alastair Cook, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Matt Prior, Sam Robson, Joe Root, Chris Woakes

Happy enough with that squad - only differences to mine are: Ali for Patel/Rashid & Plunkett (who I had as 12th man) for Stokes.

Should be enough in that seam bowling stock to batter the Lankans at home. Give them some broken bones hopefully.

Not to bad a squad.. I dunno who the back up keeper is. if Matt Prior pulls up before the game with an injury.
Seems they don't fancy Tredwell and that's understandable. I hope we don't go for Panasar ever again. Hes not right in the noggin for starters.

Liam plunkett inclusion is well deserved. Jordan is not a test player. Prior inclusion shocking... Still, you'd expect England to win the series 2-0.

Jordan is not a test player? we will see.

The recent Butlergate scandel has added a bit of spice to the series.

Morgan should be in the squad. Not pleased about that.

It's a shame South Africa don't produce quality spinners for themselves and England