England Favourite in 2nd Test Against Sri Lanka

London: England have won five of their last seven Tests by an innings, but were probably lucky to get away with their strategy of playing four bowlers against Sri Lanka at Cardiff.

Sri Lanka lost their last eight wickets for 49 in 72 balls in less than an hour. No one expected England would win the first Test by an innings in a game that Graeme Swann said had a "club feel."

With James Anderson injured and out of the squad, England may consider playing a fifth bowler on what is usually a benign Lord's pitch.

England last went into a Test with five frontline bowlers against Bangladesh at Mirpur 15 months ago. Since then they have won nine out of 12 Tests, with two losses and a draw.

Yet, the workload takes a huge toll on bowlers. In Australia, Anderson looked mentally exhausted, and in the last six years five England pace bowlers have broken down in mid-Test.

If Steven Finn plays England could field the tallest ever bowling combination in the history of the game. According to The Cricketers' Who's Who Finn is 6-foot-7 (2.01 meters), Stuart Broad 6-6 (1.98) and Chris Tremlett 6-7 (2.01), so they have a combined height of 19-8 (6).

Andrew Strauss has the opportunity to become the first captain to win five Tests at Lord's. Currently, Strauss, Peter May and Nasser Hussain have won four each at the home of cricket.

Strauss made his Test debut at Lord's in 2004 against New Zealand, scoring 112 and 83. He has 1,360 runs with four centuries and six 50s in 14 Tests there at an average of 61.81.

This is Alastair Cook's 65th consecutive Test, equalling the record held by Alan Knott and Ian Botham for the most consecutive Tests played for England. It is his 67th Test in all and at age 26 he has already scored 17 Test hundreds. Sachin Tendulkar scored 22 hundreds before the age of 27. Cook has two hundreds at Lords: Against Pakistan in 2006 and West Indies in 2007. His batting average has never dropped below 40.

Man of the match in Cardiff, Jonathan Trott averages 223 in Tests at Lord's. He was named England's cricketer of the year in the Long Room at Lord's on Tuesday and will walk through there again on his way to the wicket. His scores in Tests at Lord's are 226, 36*, and 184. This will be his 20th Test and he needs 197 runs to reach 2,000 runs. The fastest to 2,000 for England were Herb Sutcliffe and Pietersen, who both needed 22 Tests to pass that milestone.

On otherhand, Mahela Jayawardene came late to the tour after a stint in the IPL for Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He played on May 15 at Indore, then had just one first-class game to acclimatize before the Cardiff Test began on May 26. His scores there were 4 and 15.

But he is Sri Lanka's leading run-scorer with 9,546 runs at 53.32, with 28 hundreds and 38 fifties and has played 117 Tests, more than any of their players apart from Muttiah Muralitharan.

After scoring two hundreds in his only two appearances at Lord's, if Jayawardene scores another hundred he will become only the second overseas player to score three hundreds there after India's Dilip Vengsarkar.

Teams from

England AJ Strauss (capt), AN Cook, IR Bell, SCJ Broad, JW Dernbach, ST Finn, EJG Morgan, KP Pietersen, MJ Prior (wk), GP Swann, CT Tremlett, IJL Trott

Sri Lanka TM Dilshan (capt, LD Chandimal, CRD Fernando, HMRKB Herath, DPMD Jayawardene, HAPW Jayawardene (wk), S Randiv, RAS Lakmal, MF Maharoof, MF Maharoof, BAW Mendis, NT Paranavitana, NLTC Perera, TT Samaraweera, KC Sangakkara, JK Silva (wk), HDRL Thirimanne, UWMBCA Welegedara

Stats & trivia

• This is Sri Lanka's 200th Test.
• Trott needs 197 for 2,000.
• Pietersen needs 94 to become the sixth batsman to score 1,000 at Lord's.
• Finn needs four wickets for 50 in his 12th Test.
• Strauss needs two catches to become the sixth England player to take 100.

Match facts
June 3-7, 2011
Start time 11:00 local (10:00 GMT)