ICC Champions Trophy 2017 – Tournament Top Bowler Betting Preview

We have covered the tournament betting and the top batsman market for the upcoming Champions Trophy and now it is time to look at the market for the leading bowler in the competition, which just like the batting one is very competitive.

Anyone who is anyone with the ball in the game at the minute with the exception of the absent Sunil Narine is in this tournament and we are sure to see some fantastic bowling and plenty of wickets.

Recent Winners

2013 – Ravindra Jadeja

2009 – Wayne Parnell

2006 – Jerome Taylor

2004 – Andrew Flintoff

2002 – Muttiah Muralitharan

2000 – Venkatesh Prasad

1998 – Jacques Kallis

Market Leaders

Mitchell Starc might be returning from injury but that hasn’t swayed the odds compilers. The Australian, who has tasted English conditions with Yorkshire as well as Australia, is the 10/1 favourite to lead the pole taking in this tournament.

Those who are put off by Starc’s lack of recent action can get 12/1 and 14/1 on a couple of decent leg spinners. Adil Rashid is 12/1 while Imran Tahir, until recently the number one ranked ODI bowler in the world, is a bit bigger at 14/1.

The man who has replaced Tahir at the top of the rankings, Kagiso Rabada, is 16/1 to be the top bowler in the tournament with the Indian superstar Jasprit Bumrah the same price after a very good run in the Indian Premier League recently.

The top wicket taker in that tournament was Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the Sunrisers Hyderabad man is 20/1 to repeat the feat in this competition with Trent Boult the other man on that price. It is 22/1 bar those named.

Profile

Once again we should point out that all bar one of the winners of this have made it to the final in the year that they won so we probably shouldn’t be looking too far from players in sides we expect to go deep in the competition. With wicket taking less populated each wicket is going to count in the betting for this so each match your player can play will be important.

The other decision that needs to be made is whether to go with a seam bowler or a spinner. Often I would consider spinners but with all but two of the matches in this tournament beginning at 10.30am local time the seamers are likely to have the better of it in my eyes, especially those who open the bowling and/or bowl at the death.

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Betting

I’m not going too mad on this market given the lack of variation in totals of wickets as opposed to runs in a tournament which sees the champions play just five matches. There are however two who have caught my eye.

The Indian stump finder Jasprit Bumrah is my first pick. I’ve said elsewhere that I firmly expect India to go the distance in this competition and if that is the case it is hard to see how Bumrah wouldn’t be competitive in this market. Bumrah averages two wickets a match in his 11 game ODI career so far and in only one of those matches has he failed to take a wicket. If he performs to those statistics he won’t be far away here.

Speaking of performing to recent trends the same can be said of Liam Plunkett if he can maintain his recent form. In nine ODIs in 2017 the Yorkshire bowler has 20 wickets with the only match in that time that he didn’t pin a scalp being the first match against Ireland when England were so dominant Plunkett only bowled three overs. He has three wicket hauls four times in 2017 and a four wicket match too. If he can find some of them in this tournament he’ll be high up on the bowling charts.

Tips

Back J.Bumrah Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)

PLACED – Back L.Plunkett Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)

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