[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The World Cup could hardly have come at a worse time for Sri Lanka, who enter the tournament as rank outsiders for the first time since 1992, with the very real possibility that they could end up whipping boys of an all-in-one round-robin group phase. It would be a serious humiliation for a nation who became a force in world cricket when they lifted the trophy in 1996, and continued to punch above their weight well into this decade, but they come to England on the back of years of turmoil. The Golden Generation have mostly retired, and their batting line-up is now a game of musical chairs; they're without a bilateral series win since 2016, they've won only one of their last ten ODIs, they've snubbed Chandimal, Dickwella and Dananjaya in their final squad, and the captaincy has been handed to Dimuth Karunaratne who hasn't played an ODI in over four years. In the 2018 Asia Cup they finished bottom of their group, below both Bangladesh and Afghanistan, and it would take a brave man to bet against it happening again.

If they have a prayer of going anywhere in this World Cup, it lies with Lasith Malinga and Suranga Lakmal, who between them can knock over the very best of batsmen. Malinga had another solid IPL, holding his nerve with the last ball of the tournament to clinch the trophy for Mumbai, and Lakmal's new-ball swing bowling could prove a massive threat in English conditions. But they'll need their batsmen to give them something to defend, and that challenge will more than likely be the undoing of a side looking at their first group stage exit of the twenty-first century.

Highest World Cup total: 398-5 vs Kenya (Kandy, 1996)
Lowest World Cup total: 86 vs West Indies (Manchester, 1975)
Leading World Cup run-scorer: Kumar Sangakkara, 1532 runs
Leading World Cup wicket-taker: Muttiah Muralitharan, 68 wickets


Tournament Schedule: New Zealand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, India