Pakistan and England have met over Test matches and ODIs in the last month or so and now the visitors finish their tour of the Emirates with three T20 internationals which carry extra significance to normal as they provide quality preparation opportunity for the upcoming World T20.
Pakistan were comfortable winners of the Test series while England extracted maximum revenge on them in the ODI series which you could argue matters more going into this series. The T20s can decide the success of England’s tour.
As a rule I have to admit I’m not often a fan of betting in T20 series. There’s a couple of reasons for that. First of all there aren’t many of them that are more than one match and also most of them are like this one, at the end of a tour when a side are probably thinking of the plane home.
One thing I will say with regards to this series is I expect it to be much more competitive than the ODIs were and I don’t see either side winning 3-0 so if you are backing a side there might be more value in the 2-1 correct score than the series outright. I’m not going to back either from the outset though.
In fact I’m only going to have one bet on the series and it comes in the Top England Batsman market. I’m always keen to play openers in this format of the game because they have the maximum batting opportunity and I’m taking an opener here.
That is Alex Hales. Hales is one of the best players in the world in this format of the game and he gave us a glimpse of what to expect with that wonderful ton he made in the ODI series. We’ve seen in this format of the game how destructive he can be too and given that he’s likely to face the seam to begin with I expect him to go well.
I toyed with Jason Roy but Roy doesn’t seem to pace his innings as well as Hales while Morgan and Buttler, two more huge dangers bat a little bit low for my liking so I’ll stick with Hales.
Back A.Hales Top England Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Unibet
