The final leg of England’s tour of Sri Lanka gets underway in the early hours of Tuesday morning when the two sides go to battle in a three match Test series to round off the month. This feels like a big series for both teams.
England have a poor overseas record in recent times but have two potentially winnable series this winter while Sri Lanka are looking to get their name in the conversation among the better sides in the format.
Schedule
1st Test: 6-10 Nov at Galle
2nd Test: 14-18 Nov at Kandy
3rd Test: 23-27 Nov at Colombo
Sri Lanka
Clearly we’ve seen over the last 2-3 weeks that Sri Lanka cricket is not in a strong place and it will get even weaker after the first Test as Rangana Herath gets a lap of honour in his final match in international cricket. We should however recognise that only India have beaten them in their last eight series dating back to 2016. That is a respectable effort even if some of their opposition may not have been of the highest quality.
Sri Lanka might struggle to take 20 wickets when they are overseas but on their own patch they do it regularly and will fancy their chances of landing the series if they can replace Herath after the first game. If they are to do that they will need to make sure they have no mishaps with the bat but their recent record merits respect when considering who will win the series.
England
England are very much like Sri Lanka in many ways. They find taking 20 wickets no issue whatsoever in their home conditions but away from home they don’t look like they have a clue when it comes to bowling sides out cheaply regularly. Often in Asia their reluctance to play enough spinners goes against them so it should be a positive that they have picked three for this series and are talking about playing all of them.
That should leave their only issue boiling down to whether they can put up enough runs. That has been the other problem on their travels in recent times and it is something that has held them back for far too long. Often in Asia you need to be patient with the bat and that is no longer the default setting for an English batsman.
Head to Head
These two nations have met in 15 previous Test series. England have had the slight edge in the past with seven wins to the five of Sri Lanka. There has also been three drawn efforts in that time. Sri Lanka have won three of the series in Asia with England bagging a couple many moons ago and the last series finishing 1-1 which is the only draw thus far.
In terms of matches England are fairly dominant having won 12 and drawn 11 of the 31 games between the two sides. Much of the reason for that is because the series in England tend to be longer which plays into their hands.
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Betting
I’ve no intention of getting too involved in this series. It is monsoon season out in Sri Lanka so expecting to get any lengthy period of time to fit a Test match in is pushing it a bit. To expect form and logic to play out in that time is asking even more it must be said.
I will chance one bet though which is for the series to end 0-0. As long as England don’t collapse in a heap to Herath in the opening game, if there is enough play in Galle to even allow it, then you would imagine both sides will struggle for 20 wickets throughout the remainder of the series. With rain likely to take away a fair amount of game time in all three matches I think 0-0 has every chance at a decent price.
Tips
Back Series score – 0-0 for a 2/10 stake at 15.00 with Bet365
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