THE EDGE: The Edge previews the 1st Test between ENGLAND v SRI LANKA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
England v Sri Lanka 1st Test
MATCH OVERVIEW:
After a month of the Hundred on Betdaq Betting Exchange, the focus in England switches back to Test cricket as England begin their series against Sri Lanka on Wednesday. We kick off the three match series in Old Trafford, and one of the main headlines of the summer has been an injury for Ben Stokes in the Hundred. Stokes has opted not to play plenty of white ball cricket in favour of being England Test captain, however he was talked back into the Hundred by Freddie Flintoff only to be ruled out for the summer. He’s aiming now to be back for the Pakistan series, and Ollie Pope will captain the side.
Although it’s exceptionally unlucky for Stokes, it probably makes this series a little more interesting. England hammered the West Indies earlier in the summer, and most cricket fans would have expected another routine 3-0 series win against a reasonably weak Sri Lankan side too. Although Ollie Pope has been Stokes vice-captain for over a year, it will be interesting to see do England play with the same attacking style they did under Stokes. Another huge factor is obviously the coach Brendon McCullum so it’s hard to see the style changing too much to be honest, but Stokes does drive that on the field. Another interesting angle is England have a fresh and young attack with Jimmy Anderson retired now as well.
Despite all these questions for England to answer, anything bar a comfortable win here would be a big shock. Sri Lanka were beaten by and England Lions squad in their warm-up Test. It might be only a warm-up Test, but getting bowled out for 139 is hardly a confidence boosting experience! It’s hard to see past an England win.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
The 1st Test of the series will be at Manchester, and we do have a little rain forecast on the long range forecast. Thursday looks the mostly likely day, and that seems like it’s going to be a day of watching the radar. That will make the decision at the toss tricky; you probably want to be bowling in those conditions either side of the rain or showers coming in. The last Test finished a qraw here in the Ashes, but Old Trafford has turned into a result venue recently – that was the only draw from the last nine Tests going back to 2014.
RECOMMENDED BET:
We do have an interesting market here with England trading as the 1.3 favourites. As I said above, with Stokes out England have a few more questions than normal to answer. We also have a little rain around which could bring the draw into things. However, from an outright point of view I feel the 1.3 offers some nice value on England. Let’s be honest; they don’t have to be at their best to beat this Sri Lankan side. The dodgy weather will probably work against Sri Lanka too; a moving ball in English conditions is always very difficult and the weaker Test nations just can’t deal with those cloudy conditions when batting. They might trade higher in-running, but I’m very happy with the 1.3 on England.
The Edge Says:
Three points win England to beat Sri Lanka at 1.3 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngSri1
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
It’s a no brainer to keep an eye on the radar here with that rain forecast on Thursday (at the moment, anyway). That could easily see a lot of movement in the draw price, especially if the game doesn’t move along on Wednesday. In general you want to bat first at Old Trafford – we tend to see the wicket break up a little here and it offers uneven bounce and spin towards the end. However, I wouldn’t be confident in the Sri Lankan batting in any innings here – even if they get all the advantages it’s still hard to see them batting well in cloudy conditions. I do feel the best in-running trade will be taking on their batting.
