The last two teams to get their Champions Trophy campaigns underway do exactly that when the first match of the tournament in Lahore takes place on Saturday when the world champions Australia go up against England.
Both sides will be looking to go deep in this competition and will know that the draw in the group has probably worked out so a winning start will serve them well in that quest. The loser isn’t out but would be under pressure to deliver.
Australia
The world champions will be looking to emphasise their 50 over dominance over the next couple of weeks and they will certainly be wanting to get the better of a struggling England side and get the first of plenty of meetings between these two enemies in 2025 under their belts. It has to be said that this will be a different Australia side to the one which won the World Cup final in Ahmedabad 15 months ago and it will be interesting to see if enough of the quality remains.
You get the feeling that if Australia are going to win this match and indeed the tournament, their batting is going to need to come to the party and deliver a strong showing because their bowling has been decimated in terms of their strongest side. That unit is very much a second string one and unless Adam Zampa has a tournament to remember you can certainly see Australia being involved in some high scoring matches, and they might be even if he does come to the party.
England
England have slumped in all white ball cricket since the won the T20 World Cup in 2022 but they have a chance to show that they can still mix it on the big stage here. They shouldn’t lack for motivation, not just because they have their rivals in the opposition here but also because they have slumped in the 50 over World Cup and the last 20 over one. The elder players in the England team could be in their final global tournament and that should be enough for them to come to the party.
The bad news is they come here off the back of a good beating in an ODI series with India recently where if you include the T20 matches on top they were given a 7-1 beating and were well beaten in every match it has to be said. England need their batters at their best here and scoring big totals not just getting starts and getting out when they are well set. This is the strongest attack England can put out but in these conditions it isn’t as strong as it would be back home.
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Team News
Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have all been ruled out of the tournament so Spencer Johnson and Nathan Ellis look set to lead the attack. This will be a side who relies on part-time spin and will load up with batting. Steve Smith captains the side.
England have already named their XI for the match and Jamie Smith is fit to come back into the team. There is no Gus Atkinson though as Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Brydon Carse get the seam bowling spots. England will also rely on part-time spin to make up their fifth bowler.
Betting
You would imagine that whoever wins this match, and I would probably favour Australia but it wouldn’t be without any massive confidence, that this is going to be a high scoring game. Australia are missing three stud bowlers and the second string are very inexperienced in this part of the world whereas the England attack isn’t suited to these conditions. Both teams are playing the extra batter and the part-time spinners for a fifth bowler.
I would therefore expect a high scoring match but we’ve seen the chasing side struggle in both matches in Pakistan so far and in case that trend continues I’ll take the boundaries line for this one rather than the runs one. The boundaries line is 62.5 but this isn’t a huge ground so that doesn’t bother me. Both teams have brutal hitters of a ball in at seven and solid lower order batters at eight so there is no reason why they can’t go hard with the bat. I mentioned during the series with India about England matches having more boundaries these days because they attack in the field with field placings and bowling lines and this one looks perfectly set up to cover this target.
Tips
Back Over 62.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
