Jordan Cox has three ODI caps, and he keeps wicket in the Oval decider without Buttler
England go into Sunday’s series decider against Sri Lanka with a stand-in keeper and, as cover, a batter who has never played white-ball cricket for them.
Sep 26, 2026
Jordan Cox has played three ODIs for England. On Sunday he is expected to play his fourth, keep wicket in place of Jos Buttler, and do it in a series decider against Sri Lanka at The Oval.
Buttler was ruled out on Friday with the left hamstring injury he picked up at Headingley. Dan Lawrence of Surrey has been called into the squad as cover. The series is level at 1-1, and the third ODI starts at 10.30am local time, which is 3pm IST.
What England lose without Buttler
Buttler pulled up running between the wickets on Thursday, faced two more balls and then retired hurt. He came back out near the end and was caught for 69, his highest score of the series. England still lost by 16 runs.
That innings was the best sign in some time that Buttler has plenty left in 50-over cricket. He is 36 now, and soft-tissue problems have kept interrupting him, mostly calf injuries, though he had a similar left hamstring problem during the 2024 IPL. England will not know how bad this one is until he has an MRI scan early next week.
Cox is expected to take the gloves ahead of Tom Banton. Banton opened the batting at Headingley and made 73.
Lawrence is uncapped in white-ball cricket
Lawrence has played Test cricket for England, and made three half-centuries in four innings in the recent series win over Pakistan. He has never played an ODI or a T20I. He was called up once before, for the Pakistan ODIs in 2021 when England’s first-choice squad had to isolate with Covid, and did not get a game.
Surrey withdrew him from their County Championship match at Taunton after he made a hundred on the first day, his sixth of the season. His List A record is thin, though: 28 matches, and it has been years since his last one. He is in the squad as cover, and Cox is the one expected to play.
Kevin Pietersen, now England’s white-ball mentor, framed the injury as a chance to find out who can step in before next year’s World Cup. “Somebody can step up into Jos’s boots, like we’re going to need to have on Sunday,” he said on Thursday night.
Wellalage is the problem to solve
England won the first game at Chester-le-Street by 89 runs. At Headingley, Sri Lanka made 321 after Kusal Mendis scored 121, and their left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage took 3 for 49 to pull the chase back after Ben Duckett and Banton had given England a fast start. England’s middle order, now without Buttler, will need a better answer to him in south London.
It is a one-game series now. I would still make England slight favourites at home, but a Sri Lanka side that bats first and gets 300 will be hard to stop, and the hosts are going in with a keeper who has three caps.