England begin their second Test match series of the summer on Wednesday when Sri Lanka are the visitors for a three-match spree, the first of which comes from Old Trafford in what should be a good week of cricket.
England cruised past West Indies in a three-match series earlier in the summer and they will be looking to follow that up here ahead of a big winter and a huge 2025 in red ball cricket. Sri Lanka will be eyeing up a key scalp in this series.
England
England probably weren’t pushed as hard as they would have wanted to be by West Indies in the earlier part of the summer but the weather hadn’t levelled out by that point and conditions were tough for a touring side to cope with. Things are much better now though so they will hope to find some sort of competitive opponent even though they will want to win and pick up World Test Championship points at the same time. England are looking ahead to India being on these shores next summer with The Ashes the following winter.
It will be a changed England side here because the injury to Ben Stokes has ruled him out of the series so England will be led by Ollie Pope for the first time. It might be no bad thing to see what the future without Stokes is like because he is always an injury candidate with the way his body is and the intensity of the workload he puts through it. There is no like for like replacement though so England are going to have a different balance to their side for this series.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka have had a quiet time of it in the two white ball competitions over the last 12 months so they really need to show something in the red ball stuff. To their credit, they went well in the series against Bangladesh back in March and they have come over early enough for a warm up match ahead of these three matches so they are looking like they are wanting to put a decent account of themselves out there. The acid test for that comes here though.
If Sri Lanka are going to get anything out of this series then they are going to have to bat well. They have probably arrived at the right time. The weather has levelled out and pitches are tiring and there is no Jimmy Anderson with the new ball so if they are going to have an easier time of it with the bat this will probably that occasion. England offer up chances for bowlers so you fancy Sri Lanka might be fine in that department so the onus is on their batters to deliver the goods here.
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Team News
England have already confirmed their XI for the match and they have made two changes to the team who played the last Test against West Indies. Dan Lawrence has come in for the injured Zak Crawley to open the batting while Matthew Potts will replace Ben Stokes.
Sri Lanka have pulled a bit of a surprise in their XI by naming Milan Rathnayake for his debut instead of the more established Lahiru Kumara and Kajun Rajitha. The rest of the side kind of picks itself for the tourists at the minute.
Betting
Dan Lawrence has a chance to make a name for himself in this match and although he will do it in the unusual position for him of opening the batting, in this England side batting positions don’t really matter, you still play the same way. I don’t think Sri Lanka are going to be overly threatening with the new ball so Lawrence should be able to get in and when he is in I fancy him to fill his boots on what is usually a decent pitch for batting initially at Old Trafford and a lightning fast outfield.
Lawrence has a performance line of 73.5 which I think is a little on the low side. I say that because in his short Test career he has already faced Sri Lanka out in Galle so he’ll have something in the way of knowing what is coming his way. I guess the downside to this bet is he might only get one innings but you would imagine he will field around the bat and it might not be stretching it too much for him to get the odd over of his funky spin. He scored 73 in his first innings against Sri Lanka so he might only need one innings to cover this. I like the over here.
Tips
Back D.Lawrence’s Performance – Over 73.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
