England vs Sri Lanka tips and predictions: Buttler's boys to wake from slumber
- Scott Allen
- 4 days ago
Put on your tin hat, England are back in action against Sri Lanka in the Cricket World Cup on Thursday. Surely the reigning champions can't continue to be that awful again?
Everyone knows defending your World Cup crown is tough, but it’s certainly not impossible.
West Indies did it in 1975 and 1979, while Australia did it three times in 1999, 2003 and 2007.
But England are making an absolute pig’s ear of their defence.
They were given a 229-run thrashing by South Africa on Saturday, their heaviest ODI defeat by runs.
It was their third defeat in four games at this year’s tournament, one away from equalling an unwanted record of losing four matches, which they did in 1996 and 2015. Remember those heady days? No thank you.
To make matters worse Afghanistan’s eight-wicket victory over Pakistan on Monday, pushed England to the bottom of the group…and there’s only one group!
England are on track for worse averages with bat and ball than in that dismal 2015 campaign, currently averaging 27.13 runs per wicket lost and a barely believable 42.61 with the ball.
Dawid Malan’s beautiful century against Bangladesh is a lone highlight so far. While remarkably fast bowler Mark Wood leads the batting averages, with 80 runs in 58 balls for one dismissal.
Typically the one bright spark in the bowling attack Reece Topley, who leads the bowling averages with eight wickets at 22.87, is now out of the tournament with a broken finger.
Brydon Carse, who has taken 14 wickets in 12 ODIs to date, got the nod to replace Topley but the Sri Lanka game might come too soon for him to be included.
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It’s all going terribly wrong for England, and it might be nice of Sri Lanka to put them out of their misery on Thursday.
Defeat and they have had it, a win and England’s slim hopes of making the semi-final are still alive, but only just.
So I’ve drunk an entire bottle of gin and am feeling super positive about this encounter.
England are going to finally hit their straps (although I think I said this last week) as long as Jos Buttler steps up with the captaincy and doesn’t make any more silly decisions like opting to field in sapping heat and humidity.
You won’t find much joy in England’s odds to win (3/10), especially given how awful they have been.
But England to win and both teams to score 275+ runs each could offer a bit of profit.
Topley was giving us some joy in the leading wicket taker market, but that is sadly over now. So leaning towards Adil Rashid (10/3) and Gus Atkinson (4/1) is probably the way to go.
The Bengaluru pitch should favour the batter and Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Harry Brook seem to be the only players awake with the bat. Somebody else has to join the party.
Ben Stokes’ miserable 5 against South Africa will put fire in his belly and you might want a nibble at him being England leading run scorer.
If you are expecting disaster again, Mark Wood and Atkinson - who put on a nice little partnership against South Africa when all was lost - are 50/1 and 80/1 respectively to be top England run scorers.
But if it comes to that then most England fans will be throwing themselves off a cliff…again.
Predictions
Adil Rashid top England wicket taker
