England's third one-day international with Sri Lanka was stopped for rain after just two overs of play.
The hosts were inserted in Hambantota and were 6-1 when they left the field, having lost Kusal Perera when the left-hander cut Chris Woakes to Eoin Morgan.
The umpires called the covers on at 9.11am GMT in anticipation of a heavy downpour, which soon came and left standing water on the outfield.
Overs are being lost as the ground staff work to improve the conditions, but play must resume in time to allow 20 overs for each side to bat in order to constitute a game. Thursday is scheduled as a reserve day.
England made three changes to the team which suffered an eight-wicket defeat to the Lions in Colombo on Saturday, with Alex Hales, Ben Stokes and Chris Jordan replacing Ian Bell, James Tredwell and Harry Gurney.