Sri Lanka failed to win a single match the last time they played England in an ODI series in 2016 and have lost 30 of their last 40 ODI matches so it is no real surprise that Eoin Morgan’s side are odds-on to come out on top in the upcoming five-match head-to-head, which starts at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Sri Lanka’s Central Province this Wednesday.
England won the only warm-up match they were able to fit in with the captain and Joe Root looking in good nick with the bat. Both are normally excellent players of spin and that is what England’s batsmen will be mostly facing in the coming weeks. Slow, spin-friendly surfaces on the subcontinent have, of course, proved England’s undoing in the past. But they did eventually get on top of Kuldeep Yadav and India’s other slow bowlers earlier this summer with Root, in particular, standing deep in his crease to give him more time to judge the flight of the ball.
A repeat win in Sri Lanka would give notice that England can adapt to any surface, a big plus ahead of next year’s World Cup even though that will be played on home soil, where conditions normally favour swing bowlers. England’s batsmen have quickly forged a reputation for posting big scores – Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow will all score quickly if getting a start – but Sir Lanka’s pitches are not generally conducive to scores in the high 300s or 400s. The top score in their recent five-match series loss against South Africa was only 363. However, that doesn’t detract from the fact that England look good things for a series win at the 1/2 with 888sport.
Sri Lanka are in a mess and have been for some time. They have won just four of 16 ODI series in four years, beating only Ireland, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and the Windies. They lost 12 ODIs in a row in 2017 against Zimbabwe, India and Pakistan and in this summer’s Asia Cup in the UAE were bowled out for 124 and 158 by Bangladesh and Afghanistan respectively to finish bottom of their group.
Angelo Mathews has been sacked as captain and omitted from Sri Lanka’s squad to face England, which will have delighted the tourists as his medium pace bowling on the slow wickets has caused them problems in the past. Dinesh Chandimal will lead Sr Lanka again but has a huge task raising morale. The Lions have slipped to eighth in the world rankings since the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Lasith Malinga is still playing but nowhere near as effective as he once was.
England have a poor record in Sri Lanka but it would be a huge surprise if the world’s top-ranked ODI side came up short this time. A 4-1 Correct Score in England’s favour is 11/4 with BetVictor and 888sport have Jason Roy at 4/1 to be his team’s top-scoring batsman.
