England are set to face-off against co-hosts Sri Lanka at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium, Kandy, in their first of three super 8s matches.

Harry Brook's charges will be hoping their best is yet to come, after having scraped to victories against lower-ranked oppositions in the group stages.

Familiar hunting ground for England

A four-run win in their T20 World Cup opener against Nepal, followed by a demoralizing defeat at the hands of fellow Group C powerhouse West Indies placed question marks over the two-time trophy holders, particularly after a dismal Ashes campaign.

But England followed it up with back-to-back wins against Scotland and Italy, albeit not in the most convincing manner. They lost both their openers inside the first two overs chasing 153 versus Scotland, while a surge of sixes from Ben Manenti and Grant Stewart in their final group stage match defending 202 briefly jeopardized their qualification hopes.

"You don’t want to start off on a high. In world competitions, you want to kind of build it up and hopefully we can start that trend from the confidence from tonight and into the Italy match. We’d rather not start amazing and finish amazing than start amazing and finish bad."

Those were the words of skipper Brook, after the Scotland encounter.

England will hope Brook's increasing confidence and their recent 3-0 whitewash of tomorrow's opponents comes to the fore as they seek their fifth consecutive T20 World Cup semifinal berth. All three T20Is took place on this very ground.

Sri Lanka's lack of preparation and the indefinite postponement of the Lanka Premier League meant that much like England, concerns were raised over how far they could go in this World Cup, where they haven't featured in the semis since 2014.

But they upstaged an injury-ravaged Australia in Pallekele, chasing down 182 inside 18 overs thanks to one of the finest centuries from Pathum Nissanka (100* of 52). Dasun Shanaka's team couldn't prevent Zimbabwe from giving them a taste of their own medicine, as they failed to defend 178 most recently.

Sri Lanka's top order has been flourishing, while England have relied on Will Jacks a couple of times to launch a rescue act. Sri Lanka's spinners have taken the mantle, while Adil Rashid has gone for 121 off his 11 overs against Associate nations.

Both sides rely on different departments to do the heavy lifting, and there will be a lot more at stake when they meet again this month in Kandy.

Top Run Scorer (England) - Jacob Bethell

England's young superstar Jacob Bethell has prevented the middle order from early exposure following modest returns from Jos Buttler and Phil Salt thus far.

He started the World Cup with a half-century against Nepal, and heads into the knockout stages as England's highest run getter. His averages 28 in T20Is, but has been growing from stride to stride across formats in the last 12 months.

With batting depth present in abundance, and a shot at attacking a Sri Lanka side without Matheesha Pathirana and Wanindu Hasaranga in and outside the powerplay, the England number three could be in for a big one on a surface that's proven to be most conducive to run-scoring amongst the three Sri Lankan venues.

The latest Sri Lanka vs England T20I odds are available on LiveScore Bet

Player's Total Runs - Over 23.5 - Kusal Mendis

Sri Lanka's wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis has been an absolute rearguard at one-down, becoming just the fifth player to notch three successive 50s in the T20 World Cup.

With 182 runs in four outings, experience and familiarity with the surroundings, and being equally adept at negotiating spin and pace, Mendis could once again construct the platform for the home side.

He is an expert in finding gaps and accumulating doubles in the vast outfields of Kandy and Colombo, and even top-scored in the recently-concluded series against England with 95 runs to his credit.

To claim Sri Lanka rely on his smarts in the middle overs against Rashid and co., is an understatement.