International Cricket: England vs. Sri Lanka 1st ODI Cricket Prediction

Sri Lanka’s tour of England continues tomorrow with the first ODI match being played at Chester-le-Street. The match will start on Tuesday June 29th, 2021 at 6:00am EST.

This series will be one for Sri Lanka to regain some dignity after their lackluster performance in the recently concluded T20 series which they lost 3-0. England will be looking to complete the tour sweep of their opponents with consistency in all 3 departments. The pitch will be a batter’s pitch, as is always the case at Chester-le-Street, and with the Captains of the respective sides knowing that fact, they will be eager to win the toss and take the first knock tomorrow.

England have shown the dominance we expected of them in the T20 series with win margins of 8 wickets, 5 wickets and 89 runs across the 3 matches. They will know they have to re-apply themselves in this slightly longer format if they wish to maintain similar authority over their opponents. Eoin Morgan, England’s captain, will be looking to shake off the dismal batting slump he has found himself in and lead from the front. England’s bowling unit without the likes off Jofra Archer have done a brilliant job under the stewardship of Mark Wood and Chris Woakes with the dynamic all-rounder Sam Curran adding to the star power that England possess.

Sri Lanka have had a torrid time to date on this tour and their woes continue as they will be without 3 of their players through suspension. Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilaka will not take part in the remainder of the tour leaving Sri Lanka with less of a competitive fight than they had to begin with. Kusal Perera will more than likely open the batting in place of Danushka Gunathilaka and wicket-keep for Niroshan Dickwella. The bowling department of the Sri Lankans left a lot to be desired and will look to bounce back with better bowling cohesion if they are to restrict England’s batting power. Let’s see if the 3 departments can work in tandem to turn this tour around in their favor.

Sri Lanka are a decent team with a lot of fight, playing hard right to the very end, but this first match tomorrow I am going to say England will win. England are playing some really impressive cricket right now, especially in white-ball cricket. Expect an easy win for England tomorrow, maybe in time for them to watch their team go up against Germany in EUROs Round of 16.