Free betting tips: Sri Lanka v England series preview by Richard Mann
England begin their three-match Test series against Sri Lanka on Tuesday and Richard Mann expects to next few weeks to be tough work for the tourists.
Recommended Bets: Sri Lanka v England
4pts Sri Lanka to win the series at 6/4
Despite enjoying success in the ODI and T20 International legs of their current tour of Sri Lanka, England should be under no illusions at the enormity of the task facing them in the upcoming Test series.
Winning away from home in red-ball cricket is becoming increasingly rare - particularly in Asia - and in Sri Lanka, England face a Test outfit seemingly on the up and perfectly equipped to prosper in these conditions.
Despite their endeavours, Australia recently succumbed to Pakistan in Dubai, and South Africa, widely regarded as one of the best travelling teams on the Test circuit, were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Sri Lanka when visiting these shores earlier in the year.
Home advantage, it seems, has become almost impossible to overcome.
England's prospects would appear bleak, especially when you consider that their inexperienced and stuttering top order will now be without the services of Alastair Cook following his retirement at the end of the summer, and much will depend on the form of captain Joe Root who made a hundred in the opening warm-up match.
Keaton Jennings and Rory Burns are expected to open the batting with Jonny Bairstow's ankle injury potentially opening the door for Joe Denly to make his Test debut and bat at number three.
Moeen Ali is expected to slip back down the order to bolster a hugely-important 'engine room' that also includes Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and either Chris Woakes or Sam Curran.
Root will be hoping Adil Rashid can transfer his impressive white-ball form to the longer form of the game with fellow spinners Moeen and Jack Leach expected to shoulder plenty of responsibility on the bowling front.
England will again rely heavily on James Anderson, whose record in Asia is better than many would like to believe, and his performances in Dubai during England's series defeat to Pakistan back in 2015 highlighted his ability to prosper in such harsh conditions for seam bowlers.
Anderson's outstanding efforts in that series saw him take 13 wickets at an average 15.61, numbers that put to shame the struggles endured by Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle on Australia's recent tour of the Gulf.
Despite conditions which are unlikely to favour Anderson over the coming weeks, he remains Root's key bowling weapon and should not be underestimated in any top England bowler markets.
But with England's batting struggling throughout last summer, and the first Test to be played in Galle to celebrate Rangana Herath's final match for Sri Lanka, it is easy to envisage a scenario in which the visitors are 1-0 down and on the back foot for the rest of the series.
Herath has been one of Sri Lanka's great cricketers, following in the footsteps of Muttiah Muralitharan and taking on the mantle of leading a bowling attack that had huge holes to fill once the latter and Chaminda Vaas headed for the exit door.
Herath's record now stands at 430 Test wickets at an average of 27.95 and, despite celebrating his 40th birthday earlier in the year, he has still bagged 24 dismissals in five matches in 2018.
The candle clearly still burns bright, even if the body is beginning to tire, and more worrying for England is the fact that Herath currently sits on 99 wickets at his beloved Galle - with nine five-wicket hauls and five Man Of The Match awards. Everything points to the left-arm finger spinner bowing out in fine style.
Galle is something of a fortress for Sri Lankan cricket and an England side containing the likes of Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen were humbled at this venue back in 2012, when Herath claimed 12 wickets in the match.
More recently, Galle staged a 278-run victory for Sri Lanka over South Africa, with Herath opening the bowling and taking five wickets in the game, and the 13/8 available for the hosts to inflict a similar fate on England looks well worth taking.
Having been forced to rebuild their batting line-up following the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, the more recent signs for Sri Lanka have been encouraging, with a young and talented group of batsmen slowly beginning to succeed at this level.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne enjoyed a brilliant series against the Proteas, amassing 356 runs at 118.66, while Kusal Mendis has already enjoyed considerable success against Australia and Dhananjaya de Silva averages close to 40 from his 17 matches to date.
With Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Matthews adding a good dose of experience and quality to the mix, Sri Lanka's batting has the potential to prove a formidable force in their own conditions.
🏏 PERFECTION 🏏
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) October 23, 2018
A superb reverse sweep for six from Chandimal takes Sri Lanka to 186-2 with still over 20 overs to go.
Watch now live on Sky Sports Cricket or follow here: https://t.co/XU5U36QQoy pic.twitter.com/kCASBJGirR
As for those conditions, spin can be expected to dominate and as was the case against South Africa, England's top order could well be tested by slow bowling from ball one and from both ends.
Of the 40 wickets the hosts claimed in that two-match series, 37 were taken by spin and both Burns and Jennings and will find this a vastly different test to that which they are used to - the ability to combat a swinging Dukes ball in a damp English summer will not be much help over the next few weeks.
With spinners Dilruwan Perera and Akila Dananjaya on hand to take up the mantle after Galle, Sri Lanka look to have most bases covered and the latter claimed 4-19 in the fifth ODI against England recently to serve notice of the threat he will pose when the sides renew hostilities.
With all that mind, 6/4 for Sri Lanka to win the series makes plenty of appeal and I want them on side for the series opener and beyond.
Should, as expected, the hosts get off to a winning start in Galle, England could struggle to halt their momentum in a part of the world where coming from behind can be almost impossible and 16/1 with Sky Bet for Sri Lanka to claim a 3-0 series whitewash has to form part of the staking plan, if only for a small investment.
Despite England's encouraging series defeat of India in the summer, they remain a side with plenty of issues to address and with no Cook to hold the top order together, now looks to be the time to take them on with conditions and the climate tilted so heavily against them.
Posted at 1510 GMT on 04/11/18.
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