West Indies and Sri Lanka have concluded their white ball battles and on Sunday they don their whites for the first of two Test matches in Antigua, where other than pride and building for the future there isn’t too much on the line.
In terms of the series though both sides go into this encounter knowing that whoever comes out on top in it will be guaranteed a share of the series and would carry complete control into the last match with them.
West Indies
There has been an up and down element to the Test team for a while for West Indies. We’ve seen them put in some wonderful performances in previous series but they have been one-off’s. The consistency they have strived for just hasn’t been there. They have something to build on here though given that they come into the series off the back of a fine, and a little unexpected, 2-0 win in Bangladesh recently.
If they can push on and win this series as well it would set them up nicely under their new permanent captain Kraigg Brathwaite. Cricket needs a strong West Indies Test side to keep this format of the game alive. If they are going to keep their consistency then you would say there is plenty on their batting in terms of the need to deliver. Their bowling rarely lets them down so if their batsmen deliver they can be hard to beat.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka have had plenty of problems in this format in the last couple of years. I guess one issue is that people still remember their glory times when the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena and Muttiah Muralitharan were around doing their thing and the expectation is to emulate them but it is important to remember that they are a side who are clearly in transition and need time and a bit of luck to sort everything out.
If Sri Lanka are going to compete the one thing they will definitely need is their best bowlers on the pitch. They have had huge injury problems in their last couple of series which has denied them a lot of their best side and they will be missing one or two key cogs in their wheel here as well. They need to find some consistency with the bat, but you suspect that will come when they have a bowling attack that they can rely on which means they don’t need to strive for extra runs.
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Team News
Kraigg Brathwaite has taken over the captaincy permanently now but there is still a place in the side for his predecessor Jason Holder. Darren Bravo could come into the Test team after a decent enough ODI series. Nkrumah Bonner is the other option.
Sri Lanka will be missing Angelo Mathews for this series but they do have Dhananjaya de Silva back in their ranks which is a bit of a boost. Dushmantha Chameera is also fit to feature which will be a huge boost to their bowling attack.
Betting
I’m not going to go too mad in this series because Sri Lanka are bringing plenty of players in and they haven’t been able to warm up as much as they would like. That will favour West Indies but they aren’t exactly the most consistent team doing the rounds so I’m not sure I want to be too locked into them either. The fact the series carries little in the way of context doesn’t really add to the spice of it either so I’ll stick with just the one bet for this first match.
That is the performance of Jason Holder. He might think he has a point to prove over the course of this series given that he has lost the captaincy and if he is out to prove that point I expect him to go well on a pitch that should suit him. He will get plenty of carry and bounce out of this pitch which the Sri Lankans generally don’t play too well and he is a pretty good batsman who should be able to fill his boots while he is at the crease on what is usually a decent batting pitch. He has a performance line of 124.5 here which is low enough given his skill set and how he will be in the game with the bat, ball and in the field.
Tips
WON – Back J.Holder’s Performance – Over 124.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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