West Indies begin a white ball tour of Sri Lanka on Sunday when the two sides meet in the first of three largely meaningless T20 matches which act as warm up contests for much more important ODI games to follow.
Both teams have had their spells as champions of the world in this T20 format so if they can perform to those levels then we should be treated to an excellent contest but neither have shown that sort of form for a while so it could be a mixed bag that we get here.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka head into this series off the back of a load of red ball matches but they have played a fair bit of T20 cricket over the course of the year, as you would expect in a year where there was a T20 World Cup. They have also been in action since that tournament when they hosted the world champions India for a three match series which they lost 3-0, albeit they took the third game to a super over, which was something after they disappointed in the World Cup.
They bombed out in the group stage there and didn’t do themselves justice at all. They couldn’t get going with the bat at all and it was similar in the series with India as well so the big thing which will be watched for in this series is whether they can come up with the goods with the bat in hand. If they can they will have every chance of coming out on top because they have some good spinners for this format of the game and a couple of wicket taking seamers.
West Indies
West Indies will have been disappointed not to win the T20 World Cup on home soil, especially as they had looked so good in the early stages of the competition but not to make the knockout phase would have annoyed them. They have since played three T20 matches against the world finalists South Africa since then and won all three so that will give them some confidence heading into this series but I suspect this will be a tougher test because it was largely a second string South Africa side that they faced.
The big test for West Indies in this match is whether they can bat properly. So often they only have success with the bat when they can belt the ball out of the ground for six but that isn’t going to be the case throughout the series here. They are not good rotators of the strike and that can lead them into trouble. The positive for West Indies is that there is no shortage of spinners in their ranks for this series and they have a couple of seam bowlers who are more than useful too.
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Team News
Sri Lanka have recalled Bhanuka Rajapaksa to their squad for this series while the likes of Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga should know who they are coming up against having played the majority of the CPL season which recently concluded.
West Indies have chosen not to bring Akeal Hosein over for these T20 matches which means that the spin will be bowled by Gudakesh Motie, Fabian Allen and Roston Chase. There is no Andre Russell or Shimron Hetmyer for this series.
Betting
I would imagine we are going to see West Indies improve their way into this series because although all of their players have been playing in the Caribbean Premier League recently, they haven’t had a chance to have a warm up match and won’t have been in Sri Lanka with too much time to acclimatise to the conditions so it is hard to believe we will see the best of the tourists in this match. It will be interesting to see what Sri Lanka have to offer in this match but I’ll need to see them before I trust them.
One man that I do trust though is Wanindu Hasaranga and I’m a little surprised he is still being priced up with performance lines of 40.5. He showed that he has the measure of many in the Caribbean in the CPL this season but West Indies are renowned terrible players of mystery spin, especially on pitches like this which might keep a little low. Hasaranga has played three matches on this ground, all against Afghanistan who are better players of spin than West Indies and he has totalled 97, 72 and 43 points. I like the idea of him covering this total once again.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 40.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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