The first Test of three between India and Sri Lanka begins on Thursday with both sides likely to be eager to draw first blood in Kolkata and take control of the series which comes thick and fast over the next few weeks.
Both sides won their last series in this format of the game so we should be getting two confident sides opposing each other here which always makes for a much better contest.
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India
I would imagine India will go out onto the park with the aim of getting this first win to set themselves up to win the series in the second match of the three which will allow them to manage their squad with the huge amount of cricket they have coming up. With that in mind I’m expecting India to begin positively with the bat and the ball.
India are usually a very strong side at home and an awful lot of their wins come by huge margins so if they have a good first day or two then they will be very tough to peg back. With the class they have at the top of the order they will be looking to maximise the runs as fast as they can especially with indifferent weather around.
Sri Lanka
This is not the best Sri Lankan side there has ever been, that much is obvious. They are very much in a transitional phase at the minute but that did not stop them upstaging Pakistan recently and now they will be looking to do the same to India. If they are to do that they will need to show plenty of fight and heart.
The positive for them is having handled the Pakistan attack this Indian one should hold no true demons for them but the negative is they will be going up against a much stronger batting line up as they found out to their cost earlier in the year when they regularly conceded 600+ in the first innings to the Indians.
Team News
Hardik Pandya has been rested for this series so India are likely to play Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja as all-rounders. They look to be at full strength with plenty of options to choose from depending on conditions.
It is hard to truly second guess the Sri Lanka team line up but one thing we can be pretty sure of is that Angelo Mathews will come back into the side having recovered from the injury which forced him out of the tour of Pakistan.
Eden Gardens
There have been 40 previous Test matches at the iconic Eden Gardens with almost half of them having been drawn. 19 in all have ended without a result. India have won 12 and lost nine of the previous 21. This will be Sri Lanka’s first Test at this venue.
Although there have been a number of draws here none of the last five matches have been drawn. Scores have been much lower on this ground recently as the wicket has offered up the chance of a result and there is said to be plenty of grass remaining on this wicket.
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Betting
Unfortunately there is said to be plenty of rain around in the early stages of this match so we will need to dodge all of that but that restricts us with the bets that can be placed given the chance of a shortening of the match in places.
I’ll just play one on the match which is the performance of Shikhar Dhawan. He filled his boots against Sri Lanka in the tour earlier in the year, scoring two big centuries in the three Tests and I expect him to continue that form here. He has a line of 92.5 which he can cover in one innings but with the opportunity of catches and the possibility of a second innings I think he can safely pass that number.
Tips
WON – Back S.Dhawan’s Performance – Over 92.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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