Sri Lanka v England Preview – October 10th, 2018
England will look to follow up on their success over India as they take on Sri Lanka in five-match one-day series. England are out on tour and that means that they are likely going to face some pretty uncomfortable tracks to bat on. But they are the current top side in the world in this format and they are favourites to sweep the series.
Table of Contents
Sri Lanka v England ODI Series Odds*
England 2/5
Sri Lanka 2/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on October 9th, 2018 at 3:37 pm)
England on top of the world
England are the top-ranked side in the world and that has come about through some cracking form in this format. England have won their last eight ODI Series now and they are the red hot favourites to win this one. There are naturally going to be bumps along the way and England are touring so an England 3-2 correct score success in the series is at 12/5 odds* (betting odds taken on October 9th, 2018 at 3:37 pm).
Following this series, England will face Sri Lanka in one Twenty20 match and then enter a three-match Test series against them.
England Batting Power
England are blessed with an immense array of batting talent. Unlike their Test counterparts, they looked very settled at the top of the order with Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy who are 10/3 and 3/1 respectively to be England’s top scorer with the bat in the Series* (betting odds taken on October 9th, 2018 at 3:37 pm). The outright favourite there is Joe Root. Throw in the likes of Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes and Joss Buttler and you have some heavy run-scorers who can change games.
Rashid can deliver with ball in hand
There is no Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad in the set up for England’s ODI and the English aren’t going to be looking towards their swing bowlers for the series anyway. They will be relying on the pace and accuracy of Chris Woakes and Mark Wood with the ball, but Adil Rashid is their shortest priced option at 5/2 to be their top bowler during the series* (betting odds taken on October 9th, 2018 at 3:37 pm). The leg-spinner should have a big impact in the conditions.
Sri Lanka lacking form
The last time that Sri Lanka won a home ODI series was back in 2015 when they got the better of the West Indies. Just back in August, they lost 3-2 against South Africa where the pitches were set up for batting. There is a mode of thinking that the Sri Lankans will change the tracks to take away the batting threat of the English. Overall home and away they have failed to win any of their last seven ODI series. They did win the Bangladesh Tri-Nations series over Zimbabwe and Bangladesh back in January but that’s a very limited highlight from them.
Prediction
England have the batting power in their ranks to go and deliver a positive result in this series. They seem refreshed and raring to go in this Dambulla fixture in midweek. They have a lot to prove and they are heavy favourites and have to live up to that billing.
It has been such a positive 18 months from them. There is the price of 1/2 on England -2.5 wks/-12.5 runs handicap to edge towards more value on the Tourists than in the match outright* (betting odds taken on October 9th, 2018 at 3:37 pm).
