We’ve previewed both the Specsavers County Championship divisions and now it is time to have a look at the many player markets that have been priced up. There are division wide markets and ones for each county for both the top batsman and the top bowler and we’ll go at them here.
Top Batsman
There are some really good batsmen in Division One this season and picking out the value in the market isn’t easy especially as we’ve lost a couple of sides where players could bump the prices out a little bit.
As with the season picks I think we need to take the search for value out of it and go looking for the winner and to me Mark Stoneman looks to have an excellent chance. Three men beat him last season when he was playing for Durham. Keaton Jennings who is no longer in the division, Nick Gubbins who is he has another season of success could well find England comes calling and Marcus Trescothick who surely won’t have 1200 more runs in him.
Stoneman made more than 1200 runs on not the easiest wicket to bat on in Durham so on a much flatter beautiful batting deck at The Oval his output should be even stronger and I would expect at least as big a ratio of runs if not a few more. I think he has a huge chance of leading the runs this season.
I’m also going to chance Michael Carberry who it is fantastic to see back. He has already made a ton in a warm up match and you’ve got to think with everything he’s been through he will be batting with plenty of freedom this season and that is half of the job. I fancy Hampshire will go ok this season and I wouldn’t be surprised if the quality of Carberry comes back out again.
Top Bowler
As with the batsmen there are some really good bowlers in this division as well. It was Jeetan Patel who led the way in this market last season but with him potentially being away with New Zealand around Champions Trophy time it might be worth taking him on with one of the other quality bowlers around.
Mark Footitt only played eight matches for Surrey last year but he bagged 34 wickets in that time so if you double that up for the full 16 games then he would have had 68 wickets which would have been one behind Jeetan Patel. Only Jack Brooks and Jake Ball had a better strike rate than Footitt last season and Brooks begins the season injured and Ball is no longer in the division. With all that in mind the former Derbyshire paceman looks a good each way chance at 20/1.
Chris Wright has been plagued by injuries in recent times but when he is fit he remains one of the best bowlers around at this level. He took 30 wickets in just nine matches for Warwickshire last season but with Chris Woakes being in the IPL and then with England I would imagine Warwickshire will wrap Wright up in cotton wool to ensure he can play the entire season especially with Olly Stone still out until July. If he can and they do he’s no 66/1 shot.
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Top Team Markets
There are three other bets I like in this division this season and they come in the team markets. The first one is the Lancashire batting market where while Haseeb Hameed and Shivnerine Chanderpaul are extremely good batsmen neither score particularly quickly whereas Liam Livingstone does just that. Livingstone has been away with the England performance side in the winter and has an excellent appetite for scoring runs. I anticipate he will really breakthrough in four day cricket this season and at 4/1 he’s my idea of the top Lancashire season batsman.
In the identical market for Middlesex the claims for Dawid Malan look solid. He’s been part of the England Lions programme for a while but he doesn’t appear to be any nearer to full honours so I just wonder if his time has come. If it has it could be his Middlesex teammate Nick Gubbins who gets noticed and that could allow Malan to close the gap in number of runs between the two from last season. Malan is a senior man at Middlesex now and they’ll rely on him for big runs. At 9/2 he can lead Middlesex’s scoring.
It is also hard to ignore the credentials of Mason Crane to be Hampshire’s top bowler. The threat of an England call up is a danger but England are pretty reluctant to blood young spinners so hopefully he will be left along to play a full campaign for Hampshire. If he is then we’ve seen all winter just how much quality he has and in George Bailey he’ll have a captain who will use him as an attacking bowler. He was Hampshire’s second leading bowler last season but Ryan McLaren is no longer at the club. Kyle Abbott rates as a danger but Crane looks good value in what could be a match.
Tips
PLACED – Back M.Stoneman Top Division 1 Batsman (e/w) for a 2.5/10 stake at 15.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
Bet on M.Carberry Top Division 1 Batsman (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
Back M.Footitt Top Division 1 Bowler (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 21.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
Bet on C.Wright Top Division 1 Bowler (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
Back L.Livingstone Top Lancashire Season Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with Bet365
Bet on M.Crane Top Hampshire Season Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Bet365
Back them here:
Back D.Malan Top Middlesex Season Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 5.50 with Coral
Back him here:
