England vs Sri Lanka 1st ODI Tips & Betting Preview - Malan to lead England to victory

England trounced Sri Lanka in the recent T20 series and that form is expected to continue. Dawid Malan opened in the final T20 and scored a marvelous 76 runs. Malan’s form deserves backing, he is tipped to score over 25.5 runs as the best bet.

England lead Sri Lanka 3-2 in their last five ODI matches but it is the visitors who have won the last two matches. They last met at the 2019 Cricket World Cup where Sri Lanka won by 20 runs.

England’s ODI form has been a bit erratic since winning the 2019 Cricket World Cup. That can be expected with the conditions in which all teams have played and the strongest squads not always available since COVID struck.

The last series England played saw them lose a three-match series 2-1 in India. In the final match of the series England needed to chase a mammoth 330 to win but fell short by just eight runs. Sam Curran was the star with the bat scoring 95 runs while Dawid Malan contributed 50.

England will be confident of seeing of Sri Lanka though. They cruised to a 3-0 whitewash in the recently completed T20 series with Sri Lanka offering little threat.

Jos Buttler has been ruled out of the ODIs with injury. Injury still keeps Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer out of the squad.

Sri Lanka have lost five of their last six ODI matches with their only win coming in their last match. In that match Kusal Perera smashed 120 runs as Sri Lanka posted 286 in Dhaka.

Dushmantha Chameera bowled superbly for figures of 5-16 in 9 overs to restrict Bangladesh to 189 runs. That performance was however an anomaly and their recent T20 performances in England has left much to be desired.

The batsmen have completely failed to adapt to the surfaces in the UK. In the three T20 internationals Sri Lanka have scored 129, 111 and 97 runs and no batsman has reached a half-century.

As if things are not bad enough currently for Sri Lanka, there are doubts over Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella ahead of the ODIs. They are both under investigation for alleged breach of bio-bubble restrictions.

Avishka Fernando has also been ruled out through injury.