We have had a look at the top batter market ahead of the T20 World Cup getting underway in the early hours of Sunday morning and before the first ball is bowled there is just enough time to look at the top bowler offering.
We have the best bowlers in the world descending on the Caribbean for this tournament so this market is absolutely loaded with talent which makes for a very competitive bowling heat this time around.
Market Leaders
Jasprit Bumrah is the 8/1 favourite to be the top bowler in the competition. He showed his class again in the Indian Premier League and unlike there where teams could sit on him knowing there was nothing else in the Mumbai bowling unit, he has a much better support cast here so teams will need to get after him. If it wasn’t for the slight doubt that given his injury issues he might be rested for one of the group games India are expected to dominate I would have him close to the top of my shortlist.
Adam Zampa gave the IPL a miss to be fresh and ready for this tournament and he is the 12/1 second favourite to be the leading bowler here. His big problem might be that the Australia seam attack is expected to be so good that he might not get as many wickets to go after but he certainly can’t have any excuses on the fitness or freshness front. I do think this will be a tournament for the spinners but others are not as far behind as the odds suggest so I’ll look elsewhere.
Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are both 14/1 to be the leading bowler in the competition. Both men arrive here off the back of reaching the Indian Premier League final recently so their workload could be managed in the early stages of the tournament which wouldn’t be ideal. If I was to take either I would go with Starc but I’m not convinced this will be an event for the seamers. Cummins doesn’t bowl in the enough of the right spots for me.
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Profile
Just like with the batsmen, it is important to sort out what we are looking for in terms of style of bowler before we get involved in this market. Each team will have at least five bowling options so that is 100 bowlers to sift through. That isn’t sustainable so if we can whittle it down to a more manageable number that might help us track down the winner.
I think primarily we should be looking at spinners. The pitches in this part of the world are much slower than they used to be anyway and there are a lot of day games in this tournament so the dew isn’t going to be as much of an issue for the spinners. If those day games are on roasting hot days then the pitches could slow up the longer the matches go on. The longer the competition goes on the same three grounds get used more so you would imagine the pitches will tire nicely for the spinners.
Betting
I’ll therefore go with a couple of spinners with the first of them being Adil Rashid. Unlike Adam Zampa, he isn’t in a side with an elite seam attack so he might well be needed to pull things back for the defending champions. The other reason I like Rashid is because he is in a group with Australia, Scotland, Namibia and Oman. The first three of those are renowned ordinary players of the spin and Oman don’t get subjected to top class mystery spin very often so as long as the shoulder issue Rashid has had in recent times doesn’t come back to haunt him he should go well in the group stage. He could then face West Indies and South Africa in the second group stage, two more ordinary players of spin so Rashid looks primed for a big tournament.
Wanindu Hasaranga has twice been the leading wicket taker of this tournament and the 50/1 on him being it again is just too big. One concern is that he is now the Sri Lankan captain and there is no guarantees that Sri Lanka reach the knockout stage but I like his initial group where he could fill his boots against South Africa and the Netherlands in particular and assuming Sri Lanka qualify, which I think they will, then he would run into Australia and New Zealand potentially in the second group stage. Injuries have hit Hasaranga in recent times but this is a man with 104 T20I wickets at a strike rate of 13.6 balls per wicket. If he maintains that ratio he looks a huge price.
Tips
Back A.Rashid Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1/5)
Back him here:
Back W.Hasaranga Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
