England cricket supporters can come from behind the sofa now. Their Ashes nightmare is over and they can emerge, blinking, slightly befuddled, with a different ball game (not to mention kinder viewing hours) to look forward to – the one-day international series.
Five games are slated to be played and there will be huge relief in Blighty and Down Under that, for the first time on a tour which started way back in November, there might be some competitive cricket.
In Test matches conditions like the pitches and ball (in England they use a different variety which seams and swings more) make a huge difference and create a gulf which, when in Australia, make England look like chumps. Of course, the reverse is true when Australia go to England. But ODI series are not affected in the same way and a truer contest is promised.
The two ODI teams are well-matched. Only one point separates Australia in the third position on the official ICC rankings from England in fourth. In terms of personnel Australia (David Warner) and England (Joe Root) each has one batter in the top ten rankings while Australia has two (Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc) to England’s one (Liam Plunkett) in the bowler lists.
It is also good news that the Test series is largely irrelevant. In the past when there was little difference between the two squads, hangovers would continue into the ODIs that followed that the Ashes. But not now. There are seven Ashes players in England’s squad and Eoin Morgan is the skipper, so Root can focus on his batting.
Something else that is notable is that Australia has lost their last three ODI series and have a poor record against England in recent head-to-heads. They have lost three of the last four.
So betting England for an upset is hardly folly. Ladbrokes go +250 about an away win and that tells you all you need to know about how much fun Australia’s price is.
The smart money, however, would be on betting a unit on both teams to win 3-2 on the correct score at different green-listed bookmakers. Australia is +188 (Coral) and England +350 (Ladbrokes). A tight series should be expected because, with decent batting wickets, there could be a flurry of runs.
That’s important because both teams have had their problems defending in the field. So we could routinely see 300-plus being chased down with both outfits, frankly, poor in terms of planning and discipline. The toss, therefore, is key and that’s a fifty-fifty call.
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