Ollie Pope, who is standing in for the injured Ben Stokes as captain, said that Hull has "a massive ceiling" - figuratively, as well as literally. "When you're 6ft 7in and you can get it down pushing up to the 85-90mph mark, and with a bit of swing with the left-arm angle, there's a lot to like about it," Pope said. "It's a really exciting week for him."

Pope said that Hull would add a "point of difference" to England's attack. "With the height, you can draw in some more edges with that extra bounce," he explained. "It makes it a lot harder to drive the ball, especially if there is a little bit of bounce at The Oval - which there can be, especially early in the game.

"And then the angle... We've played four right-arm seamers for the first two games, so it's just something different for the batters to think about in the opposition, with the ball coming into the right-hander, and obviously away from the left-hander, with that swing. It's a point of difference, and he's got some good pace as well when he's clicking in the nets."

Hull will be the first left-arm seamer to play a Test for England since Sam Curran in 2021, and only the second since Ryan Sidebottom's last Test in early 2010.

England XI vs Sri Lanka: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Olly Stone, 10 Josh Hull, 11 Shoaib Bashir