England v Sri Lanka: The three best bets for their T20 clash
Published:The crash, bang, wallop of T20 cricket has well and truly engulfed English shores after the domestic T20 Blast competition began with a flurry of games over the weekend, ahead of the national side’s battle with Sri Lanka.
Two months after the pair battled it out in the World T20 in Bangladesh, England take the field under a new regime for the first time against a Test-playing nation. But what are the best three bets for the encounter?
The Lions are a side that enjoy home comforts. That’s the theory surrounding the Sri Lankan cricket team and the fact that they’ve lost more Test matches and ODIs than they’ve won when on their travels certainly helps to make a case.
It’s a different story in T20s, the format they enjoy the most, as they’ve won 11 of their 13 as the visitors – including two against England.
England are not a powerhouse batting line-up and the fact they are favourites to send the ball over the ropes more often than their opponents is ludicrous.
Only Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler can regularly be relied upon for maximums while the Sri Lankan’s have heavy hitters dotted all along their list, from the opening pair to Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews in the lower order.
The Nottinghamshire man is quickly being pigeon-holed as a T20-only player having been overlooked for the ODI series and being shipped out on loan to Worcestershire at domestic level to play in the four-day game.
A strong showing against Sri Lanka – who he smashed for 116 at the World Cup – is unlikely to douse that chatter, but scoring runs in an England shirt is his best chance of realising his stated ambitions in the other formats.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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