The international summer begins later this week when England and Sri Lanka embark on a three match Test series which takes in Leeds, Durham and Lord’s before it finishes and it acts as a nice little starter for the cricket to come later in the campaign.
Series Preview
You could be forgiven for thinking this will be one way traffic and indeed it might well turn out to be that but a word of warning as those quotes were being bandied about two years ago when Sri Lanka arrived on these shores and then amazingly they outbowled England at Headingley and nailed the series 1-0.
I think to use the word revenge would be a little strong but clearly that might well fuel the fire for this England side who will be out to continue their recent improvement off the back of that excellent win in South Africa.
Of course it should be said this is a much weaker Sri Lanka side, on paper at least, to the last one which was here two years ago but they should still be respected because they can play and they have one or two emerging players who could become star names over the next month or so.
That said I think England will win the series. I like the options that they have and their batting is looking really strong even allowing for the sudden and shock retirement of James Taylor. That said they aren’t much of a price and the weather at this time of year stops me taking a series score.
England Markets
Instead of taking bets on the series I’m going to go with each individual side as both teams have top batsmen and top bowler markets priced up so it would be wrong not to get stuck in.
I’m going to specifically focus on the batsman market because the bowlers are all much of a muchness and any could have that devastating spell which skews the wicket taking in their favour.
Looking at the batting and Joe Root is the favourite. I guess that is understandable. Root is a class act who seems to fill his boots more often than not but I wonder if this is the series for him. He has played plenty of international cricket already this year and there will be a comedown from that eventually. Against an inexperienced attack this looks like a good opportunity to take him on with someone who bats above him.
Alex Hales’ recent break to get himself ready for this series is a concern to me. We know this is a big series for him if he is to establish himself in the side and the same goes for Nick Compton with the likes of Sam Robson, Tom Westley and Nick Browne beginning to bang the door down to replace one of them.
Alastair Cook has spent the last month filling his boots for Essex and he is said to be in some of the best form he has shown for ages and I think that can translate into a mountain of runs in this series. There is nothing in this Sri Lankan attack to trouble the England captain and the advantage he has on Root and the stroke players is that he is guaranteed to bat in every innings.
With concerns over his opening partner and the man at number three Cook looks fair value at 3/1 in the knowledge that barring injury he’ll play all three matches.
Sri Lanka Markets
The same sort of thinking applies to my strategy in the Sri Lanka markets too where the bowling could go any way. I’m a big fan of Dushmantha Chameera but I think I’ll target him in the match markets rather than these series ones.
That leaves me with the batting to concentrate on and that is fine with me. Angelo Mathews top scored in the series here two years ago as his century led Sri Lanka to a series win and we saw in the recent T20 World Cup that he still enjoys batting against English attacks.
Mathews could have an advantage in that he will bat in the middle order and could be facing the easier to score off Finn and Stokes instead of Broad and Anderson but while you can score off them they can still get you out.
I’m prepared to take the skipper on in this series. There are a few to take him on with although many of them are down the order and while I quite like Milinda Siriwardana and Dasun Shanaka, albeit more in the limited overs game, I just wonder if they will be batting too low.
With that in mind I think Dimuth Karunaratne could be overpriced at 11/2. The opener has shown he has a good technique and has already scored a ton on this tour so we know he is hitting the ball nicely. Karunaratne’s technique was solid enough to allow him to score against both Tim Southee and Trent Boult in the winter which is encouraging and while the top order might struggle around him he is solid enough to provide scores regularly enough to top score.
Tips
Back A.Cook Top England Series Batsman for a 3/10 stake at 4.00 with Unibet
Back him here:
Back D.Karunaratne Top Sri Lanka Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 6.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
