England ended Day 2 of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford with a slight upper hand, thanks to Jamie Smith's unbeaten 72 and Harry Brook's 56, leading by 23 runs with a score of 259/6. Sri Lanka had initially recovered from a disastrous 6-3 to post 236 on the first day, led by Dhananjaya de Silva's 74 and Milan Rathnayake's record-setting 72. England's bowlers, including Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir, played a pivotal role, each taking three wickets. Due to Ben Stokes' injury, Ollie Pope captains the team with Harry Brook as vice-captain, and Matthew Potts has been recalled to strengthen the bowling attack. Dan Lawrence replaces the injured Zak Crawley as an opener.