England must beat Sri Lanka on Saturday morning, with a place in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup on the line – Richard Mann previews the action.
Cricket tips: ICC T20 World Cup Sri Lanka v England
2pts Dasun Shanaka top Sri Lanka batsman at 10/1 (General)
The complexion of this fixture will change to some degree after Australia have played Afghanistan in Adelaide on Friday, with Net Run-Rate highly likely to determine who finishes second behind New Zealand in Group 1 and progresses to the semi-finals.
England are in pole position at the time of writing, but don’t completely rule out the possibility of Australia winning by the wide margin – and it would need to be a big win – against Afghanistan and at least putting some extra pressure on Jos Buttler's side.
More likely is that England will need just to win their last match to reach the last four, something they really ought to achieve against a Sri Lanka side that have done well in Australia, without appearing to have the power needed to go much further in the competition.
The possibility of England needing to pull off a quick run chase does, however, muddy the waters in terms of having a bet in the top England batsman market, and Dawid Malan was shunted down the order following a big opening partnership against New Zealand.
That made little sense to me, given the likes of Moeen Ali, Harry Brook and Ben Stokes once again failed to add any more impetus than Malan would have. In fact, England’s momentum stalled after the order change, something that could have easily cost them the match.
It's worth remembering that Malan is still England's highest-ranked T20I batsman.
It’s not the only strange tactical move England’s new white-ball leadership group have made in recent months – Ben Stokes batting at four when evidently struggling for form, or recent T20 game-time, being another.
All that means I can’t consider a bet in that market, and Sam Curran is a more solid option for top England bowler given his fine performances in Australia so far.
I can leave him alone at 3/1, not so DASUN SHANAKA who is a huge price at 10/1 to be top Sri Lanka batsman.
Shanaka is a terrific middle-order player and while you need to pick your moments with him, owing to the fact he generally bats at number six, he is worth following in the right scenario.
Such scenarios generally come when Sri Lanka are big second favourites and come up against a side with a strong pace attack that can inflict early casualties, thus meaning Shanaka gets in early with a repair job needed to be carried out by the captain.
That is exactly what happened last weekend when his 36 was enough to see him top score in Sri Lanka’s heavy defeat to New Zealand, and he has done a similar thing against Australia, Bangladesh and more than once against India in the last 12 months.
Expect England to be on the hunt for early wickets here with a place in the last four on the line, something that should bring Shanaka right into the mix again.
Odds of 10/1 are too big to ignore.
Preview posted at 1455 BST (03/11/2022)
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