England 76-1, Duckett has half-century as bad light stops play before lunch against Sri Lanka

England was racing along on 76 for one with Ben Duckett already reaching his half-century before bad light stopped play barely an hour into the opening day's play of the second Test against Sri Lanka on Friday.

Sri Lanka failed to take advantage of winning the toss and opting bowl first under thick cloud cover at The Oval, with much of the bowling wild and England losing only the wicket of Dan Lawrence (5) in tough batting conditions.

Duckett was onto 51 for his 10th half-century in 26 Tests. He brought his fifty up in 48 balls and has hit seven fours already, the best being a back-foot drive through the covers.

Duckett was in the middle with stand-in captain Ollie Pope (14 not out) when the umpires decided the light was too poor and took the players off, despite the floodlights being on at the ground in south London.

The crowd will be frustrated with that decision and Lawrence will be disappointed with his dismissal after he tried to flick a short-of-length delivery from Lahiru Kumara. He misjudged it and top-edged it for an easy catch by Pathum Nissanka coming in from gully. An early lunch was taken, by which time it had started to rain.

Sri Lanka went with an all-seam attack that looked ideal for the weather. Spinner Prabath Jayasuriya was left out and Vishwa Fernando was recalled, while No. 3 batter Kusal Mendis also returned to the team.

England handed a debut to 20-year-old left-arm seamer Josh Hull, who has been fast-tracked into the squad despite only taking 16 First-Class wickets in 10 matches in his career.

England coach Brendon McCullum has acknowledged it is a "hunch" and a "punt" to bring Hull into the team and is thinking ahead to wanting a left-arm in the attack for future series, including the Ashes next year.

Hull was given his first Test cap by former England captain Andrew Flintoff and was seen having his photograph taken with his family on the field before play began.

England, which beat the West Indies 3-0 in their series in July, has already defeated Sri Lanka at Old Trafford and Lord's and is looking to complete a clean sweep of home Test series in a summer for the first time since 2004.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)