Sri Lanka and Australia kick off their Test series in the early hours of Tuesday morning and with it only being a three match battle both sides will be looking to get off to a fast start to take the pressure off going deeper into the series.
Sri Lanka will also be looking to prove something after a disappointing series of England while Australia will be out to show why they are currently the best Test side in the world so there is a lot of motivation for both sides.
Sri Lanka
After two humblings in England in the last couple of months the Sri Lankan team need to prove themselves to the people back home and even if they don’t win this series they need to put up a much better fight than they managed to do in England where quite simply their batting didn’t cut the mustard.
You would think spin will have a greater impact on this series though which is of some help for Sri Lanka but even then they are going to have to find the patience with the bat to put up the sizeable scores needed to win matches in Asia.
Australia
Although Asian conditions are alien to Australia their record here will encourage them over the three matches they will play. A lot has been spoken internally about the need to rein things in a little bit from their usual aggressive nature with the bat and it will be interesting to see how they go in that regard.
Perhaps the best thing Australia have going for them in this match though is having all bases covered in the bowling attack. They have a left arm seamer, a left arm spinner, a right arm seamer and an off spinner so whatever the conditions are like they are going to be able to handle them with the ball.
Team News
Sri Lanka have got all sorts of issues with their bowling attack with Dushmantha Chameera and Dhammika Prasad out injured and now Shaminda Eranga suspended for an illegal bowling action. If that wasn’t enough Suranga Lakmal is a doubt for the game so Vishwa Fernando could be in line for a debut.
Australia have already named their side and have confirmed Steve O’Keefe will play as a second spinner while Mitchell Starc is also in the team for the match. Steve Smith is yet to lose a Test as Australia captain and he’ll be out to ensure that continues here.
Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
The ground in Pallekele will be staging Test cricket for the fifth time. Three of the previous four here have been draws but Pakistan did manage to get a win over Sri Lanka on the ground. Australia’s only previous meeting was a tame draw.
Although there have been three draws from four matches here the wicket often helps the seamers with plenty of them having done well here so far. Junaid Khan has a five wicket haul on this ground while Ryan Harris took six wickets in the match here last time Australia played here. If the rain stays away there could be a result in this one.
Betting
Unfortunately the forecast for the early parts of this match isn’t the best the longer the day goes on so that puts me off betting on the match outcome although if the draw does continue to shorten ahead of the off I might have a small lay of it as I’m not convinced all five days will be needed to force a result.
With the weather putting me off the match betting I’ll go to the player performances for a bet in this first Test with the player in mind being Mitchell Marsh. His line is 110.5 which looks quite high but he’ll be the third seamer in this match so it might not be high enough.
We saw out in the West Indies that his batting is coming on leaps and bounds in the slower conditions and his bowling has often been underrated. That line is low enough that a couple of wickets in each innings and 31 with the bat covers it and that is pretty much only an average game for an all-rounder at this level.
If he has a big game with either the bat or the ball he is going to cover this total much easier so with that in mind I’m happy to take the overs.
Tips
Back M.Marsh’s Performance – Over 110.5.pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
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