SRI LANKA v AUSTRALIA: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Tuesday’s 1st T20 with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

We kick off a very interesting International T20 series on Tuesday as Sri Lanka host Australia on BETDAQ Betting Exchange. There’s plenty of question marks heading into this series, and in a World Cup year we should get some answers. Sri Lanka have been going through a transitional period lately and they have suffered. Lasith Malinga has been appointed Sri Lanka’s new bowling strategy coach, which is surely a great move. He has a wealth of experience, and carried the Sri Lanka team for many years. They actually gave Malinga the same role for a tour of Australia, Sri Lanka lost the T20 series 4-1 but it was the batters more so than the bowlers. I think it’s a great thing to have him involved, and he can only improve this young squad.

Unfortunately for Australia, their head coach Andrew McDonald will miss the start of the tour as he tested positive for Covid19. He was unable to fly out with the squad, but it’s expected he will join the squad during the T20 series. This is going to be a long tour for Australia – they play three T20’s, five ODI’s and three Tests. They’ll be in Sri Lanka for quite a while, and Cricket Australia will be keeping an eye on the unrest in Sri Lanka sparked by the economic crisis. Australia will be locked away from that, but that’s two tours now where players have had reasons to worry, but in fairness the Pakistan tour went off without an issue.

Australia’s team selection will be fascinating. Does Steve Smith get into the T20 side? Aaron Finch is going to be their man to lead them into the World Cup, but he is unreliable at the top of the order. If he’s short of confidence, you can see him having a terrible run. What Australia do with Ashton Agar and Kane Richardson are questions too. They will be without their star bowler Pat Cummins for this tour however as he is rested, while Adam Zampa is out on paternity leave.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

We start the tour at Colombo, and we will have the first two T20’s here before moving to Pallekele for the third T20. While there was a big break here in the calendar during the Covid19 outbreak, we did see six International T20’s here in 2021. As you would expect, this is one of, if not the best, grounds in Sri Lanka. In the last T20 series here which involved South Africa, we had first inning scores of 163/5, 103 all out and 120/8. South Africa chased down the low scores very easily, and obviously won when they posted 163/5 too. Australia probably won’t need a “par score” to win here given the lack of solid batting in this Sri Lanka side, but I would suggest anything around 150 will be a good score to defend.

RECOMMENDED BET:

Sri Lanka have been the international whipping boys for a while now, and I was surprised to see Australia trading as big as 1.5 when I checked the odds. I expected them to be ten ticks lower and trading around 1.4 – I know they are without Pat Cummins which is a blow, and Adam Zampa would have been handy in the conditions too but their batting looks a lot stronger than Sri Lanka, and they also have the bowlers to keep tabs on Sri Lanka. Australia can sometimes struggle with spin, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sri Lanka prepare a spinning wicket, but in the first game it shouldn’t spin a huge amount. There’s a gulf in class between the sides in my opinion, and the 1.5 is a confident bet on Australia.

The Edge Says:
Three points win Australia to beat Sri Lanka at 1.5 with BETDAQ Exchange.

View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/SriAus

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

Looking at the recent games here, it’s hard to know whether to bat or bowl first. I think it was mainly down to Sri Lanka being a weak batting unit to be honest looking at the lower scores, and I would edge towards batting first. In makes sense given Sri Lankan conditions, but if Sri Lanka bat first I wouldn’t be too confident. Personally I wouldn’t stay on Sri Lanka while batting for long when trading! The biggest edge in my view will be supporting the Australian batters who looked in good touch in the IPL, and Glenn Maxwell jumps off the page in that sense. I’ll also be keen to get against this Sri Lanka batting unit, especially if they chase.