England get their white ball summer underway on Thursday when they go up against West Indies in the first of three ODI matches ahead of a T20 series which probably has more relevance given the timings of the next global events.
Ordinarily, there might not be much context to this ODI series for England but after two disastrous 50 over tournaments they begin a new era here. West Indies are looking to return to the top table in the ODI format too so this might be more competitive than it looks.
England
England will begin the Harry Brook captaincy era in this match and his task will be to lead the team back to the days where they were at the very least competitive in major tournaments. They haven’t been that in the last two of those in the 50 over sphere, often being accused of playing braindead cricket and beating themselves. It will be interesting to see whether England are any smarter under Brook than they were under Jos Buttler in the last 18 months or so.
We know that England have a strong batting unit, although perhaps not quite as strong as the halcyon one which won the World Cup six years ago, but they have been guilty of not finishing innings off and making good totals into par ones and par ones into average. Some of that is because their bowling has really weakened over the last few years and they know that they need all the runs they can get but sometimes that tendency to shoot themselves in the foot has come back to haunt them.
West Indies
Having failed to qualify for the World Cup in India in 2023, West Indies are a little further down the road of their transition and it will be interesting to see if that plays out here. They haven’t had a match in England ahead of this series but they come here hot off the heels of a three-match series in Ireland so they have had some sort of preparation. That might give them a bit of an advantage on an England team who have been playing red ball cricket this summer or playing in India until recently.
You get the feeling that if West Indies are going to win this series then they are going to need to bowl better than they did in Ireland. They allowed an indifferent Ireland batting unit to score over 300 in the opening game of that series and if they allow this England unit to get away from them they might not reel them back in. There is no reason why West Indies can’t go well with the bat here against an average looking attack but they still need to deliver the goods in that regard.
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Team News
England have named their XI ahead of the match as they often do these days and have confirmed that Jamie Smith will open the batting. Gus Atkinson has been ruled out so Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse and Saqib Mahmood will form the seam attack.
West Indies remain without Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd who are still away at the Indian Premier League but having been knocked out of that competition Shimron Hetmyer has joined up with the squad since it left Ireland.
Betting
While I hope that England activate a few more brain cells than they have done recently in this format of the game, I am fully expecting them to come out all guns blazing here because when we saw Harry Brook in charge of the Northern Superchargers that team had a freedom to play their shots and express themselves so, in keeping with all the England teams under Brendon McCullum, there is going to be a clear intent to dominate the bowling.
The good thing about this England side is it has seven genuine batters in it, an all-rounder and a bowler who is more than useful with the bat and on what is expected to be a fairly decent day weather wise there is no reason why England won’t be successful in what they try to do here. We know the pitches are playing well this season because of the dry weather up to the beginning of the week so I expect the England boundaries to flow. Ireland hit 32 of them in their innings in the first ODI against West Indies last week and this England side bat deeper and are much more aggressive. They can clear 31.5 boundaries here.
Tips
Back England – Over 31.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
