England vs Sri Lanka, 2nd ODI: Fantasy Preview

Even with England missing their marquee white-ball players, Sri Lanka have failed to test the home side. After a whitewash in T20Is, England were clinical in the first ODI to register a comfortable win five wicket win. While Sri Lanka’s skipper Kusal Perera and their best player for some time Wanindu Hasaranga did try their best. But, English pacers in Chris Woakes and David Willey orchestrated a collapse to keep the visitors at bay. Jonny Bairstow broke the back of a modest target of 186 and Joe Root provided the finishing touches after a mild hiccup.  

Ground Details and Team Combination

From Chester-le-Street, the bandwagon moves to the Oval for the second ODI. In six ODIs since 2019, the Oval has been a high scoring venue with an average run rate in a game being 5.9 and a wicket has gone down around once in every six overs which is middling in comparison to other venues in England.

There has been a wide gap on the proportion of wickets taken by pacers in comparison to the spinners at this venue. Bowling two-thirds of the overs since 2019, the pacers have taken 75% of the wickets. This is largely due to movement with the new ball and teams targeting the death overs. Hence, it is advisable to prefer a pacer over a spinner when in doubt. 

Suggested Team

While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms, we have come up with one team.

Captain Suggestion

Though his side has been struggling off-late, Kusal Perera has been in sublime touch since becoming Sri Lanka’s skipper. In four ODIs in 2021 so far, he has scored 237 runs at an average of 59.25. He scored a decent 73 in the first ODI as well. Being a keeper, a few extra points are on the cards always.

X-Factors

Along with Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga has enjoyed 2021 too. He has averaged 47 in seven ODIs and scored at a brisk strike rate of 129.3. He was wicket-less in the first ODI but has four wickets to his name in 2021.

Chris Woakes is England’s leading wicket-taker in ODIs since 2019 and was the player of the match in the first ODI. No other English pacer has taken wickets at a better rate than David Willey’s 29.5 balls per wicket in ODIs since 2019. Both of them are must-haves in your fantasy side.

Here are the top-10 picks as per criclytics projected points-

If you are short on credits, here are the top value for money picks from among those who are likely to feature in the XI-

Value for money picks

Player updates 

Jason Roy has struggled with a hamstring injury since before the 3rd T20I. He did not feature in the first ODI so keep an eye out on his inclusion. He is projected to provide around 34 fantasy points if he plays.

Dhananjaya de Silva too did not feature in the first ODI but is projected to fetch a hefty ~45 points if he takes the field.

You can check out more in-depth projections and key match-ups for this match here.