England vs Sri Lanka, ICC Cricket World Cup Betting Preview and Tips, Thursday 26th October

Details: Written by Chris; Last Updated: 24 October 2023

CWCTRophy Thursday's ICC Cricket World Cup action comes from Bengaluru where England and Sri Lanka contest what is a bottom of the table clash

England

Defending champions England have 1 win and 3 defeats against their name. First time out they were thumped by New Zealand by 9 wickets before they put themselves on the board with a 137 run victory over Bangladesh.

That victory is as good as got for England who were subsequently humbled by Afghanistan by 69 runs before crashing to a record 229 run defeat to South Africa last time out.

The Proteas set England exactly 400 for victory on Saturday and it was never on as they were reduced to 100/8 before the last pair Atkinson (35) and Wood (43 not out) showed some fight. Reece Topley was unable to bat and has subsequently been ruled out of the rest of the tournament through injury with Brydon Carse joining the squad as his replacement.

After this England will face India, Australia, the Netherlands and Pakistan and they have little or perhaps no margin for error if they are to make the semi finals.

Squads and Team News

This was how England lined up last time out

Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c & wk), David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Reece Topley

Did not play: Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka were comfortably beaten in their first 3 matches, going down to South Africa by 102 runs, Pakistan by 6 wickets and then Australia by 5 wickets.

They put themselves on the board with a 5 wicket win over the Netherlands last weekend. The Dutch posted 262 all out (Dilshan Madushanka 4/49 and Kasun Rajitha 4/50) and Sadeera Samarawickrama was the star performer in the chase with an unbeaten 91 as Sri Lanka got up in 48.2 overs.

After this Sri Lanka come up against Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and finally New Zealand.

Squads and Team News

This was how Sri Lanka lined up last time out.

Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (c & wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dushan Hemantha, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Dilshan Madushanka

Did not play: Dunith Wellalage, Lahiru Kumara, Matheesha Pathirana, Dimuth Karunaratne

Head to Head

Overall the teams have met 78 times with England winning 38 to Sri Lanka's 36 with 1 tie and 3 no results

The teams last met in a 3 match series in England in June/Jult 2021 and England won 2-0 with 1 game washed out.

In CWC 2019 Sri Lanka surprised England with a 20 run victory

The Betting

England are currently trading at around 1 / 3 to win the game and Sri Lanka can be backed at around 22/10

Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change

The Verdict

England made a few changes against the Proteas in a bid to find some form but they were all at sea with bat and ball for the bulk of the game and we might see more changes for this match. However Gus Atkinson did pretty well in the context of the game with 2/60 from his 9 overs and a few runs at the death and I will chance my arm with his Sportingbet price boost for him to take 3 or more wickets.

The only game at Bengaluru so far saw Australian openers Warner and Marsh put on 259 for the first wicket against Pakistan in a bat first total of 367/9. Pakistan made 305 in reply so there is runs at this venue and I'll stick with the price boosts for Joe Root to score a 50.