As tournament hosts, England go into the Cricket World Cup as favourites to come out on top at Lord’s on July 14 and win the competition for the first time. You have to go all the way back to 1992 for the last time they reached the final of this tournament and given the form that they have shown in the four years since the last World Cup, they look to be worthy favourites. All eyes will be on them to see if they can justify the expectation.
Profile
Captain: Eoin Morgan
Previous Best: Runners Up 1979, 1987 & 1992
Key Players: Jos Buttler & Jofra Archer
Best Odds: 2/1 General
Fixtures
May 30: vs South Africa at The Oval
June 3: vs Pakistan at Trent Bridge
June 8: vs Bangladesh at Cardiff
June 14: vs West Indies at Hampshire Bowl
June 18: vs Afghanistan at Old Trafford
June 21: vs Sri Lanka at Headingley
June 25: vs Australia at Lord’s
June 30: vs India at Edgbaston
July 3: vs New Zealand at The Riverside
Squad
Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, James Vince, Liam Dawson
Team Guide
This powerful England batting line up look to get on the front foot and have teams under pressure immediately. They are able to do that with arguably the best opening pair in world cricket right now with the class of Joe Root at three if they do lose an early wicket. No team in the tournament has the batting depth of this England side so they can beat teams through fear as much as anything else.
That is all well and good when they are chasing scores but sometimes England can get stuck when they are setting totals and that is something they will need to improve on, especially come the time of the knockout matches. This is a bowling attack which is solid rather than spectacular and lacks the skills of some teams at the start and the finish of the innings.
Betting
There is only the one team bet I like as far as England are concerned for this tournament. I’ve already taken them to win the group phase in our specials preview and there are three or four genuine contenders for their top batsman over the course of the event so I’m leaving that market alone and focusing on the bowling market.
There is a lot of talk about Jofra Archer going into this tournament but it is Adil Rashid who is the favourite to lead the England bowling, and that looks more than fair enough to me. Archer isn’t going to get a lot of assistance out of the wickets in this tournament so his wickets may largely come at the death. The problem for his backers is that Rashid will probably be bowling at the other end at the same time so he’ll be getting the cheap wickets that come along then too. He’ll also pick up wickets through the innings so the 11/4 on him to be England’s top bowler looks decent enough to me.
Tips
Back A.Rashid Top England Tournament Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Betway
Back him here:
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