Thorpe: To captain England Photo © CricInfo

Graham Thorpe will captain England in the absence of the injured Nasser Hussain.

Thorpe will take over the captaincy for the one-day series against Sri Lanka starting on Friday, in the new Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium while Hussain returns home on Tuesday for rest and treatment on a thigh injury.

Thorpe's promotion to the captaincy is reward for an excellent winter's work in which he has assumed great responsibility, culminating in his vital contributions in the deciding Test in Colombo.

"It's nice to be asked to do this, and I regard it as a great honour," said Thorpe.

"I've done a little bit of captaincy here and there during my career, but I've played enough to know what's going on. I haven't done a lot of it. But it is something I'm looking forward to and I'll enjoy doing it. I don't have any long-term ambitions about the captaincy or anything like that.

"It's unfortunate that Nasser has picked up an injury, but it's important he gets back and gets fit for this summer."

Thorpe has some experience of leading England, having stood-in for Hussain at Lord's against New Zealand, when Hussain was forced to leave the field with an injury. He will also have the opportunity to call on the experience of Alec Stewart to assist him.

He will take charge on Wednesday for the warm-up game against a President's Board XI, admitting: "I just want to get the feel of being in charge and get used to the disciplines of one-day cricket again and go through a few things with the boys.

"It is important we keep our tempo up in this one-day series after the Test win, and we have three very hard games ahead of us. They're a top one-day side, and everyone should enjoy the challenge of taking them on out here."

© CricInfo Ltd.