THE EDGE: The Edge previews the 1st Test between PAKISTAN v ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Pakistan v England 1st Test
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The England Test side are back in action on BETDAQ Betting Exchange as they begin their tour of Pakistan on Monday. These two sides have produced some dramatic moments in Test cricket, and although it’s becoming normal again, it is good to see the top sides back touring Pakistan regularly. However, this series was very close to moving to the UAE. The Pakistan board had a number issues with grounds, and it looked like we were going to move to Abu Dhabi – Pakistan’s home for many years while they couldn’t play in Pakistan – but we now begin the series in Multan, stay here for the 2nd Test before moving on to Rawalpindi for the 3rd and final Test. The late arrangements have been an issue for England fans; most tour operators had to cancel given the logistical nightmare.
Pakistan cricket are also all over the place – as usual you might say! Rumours of fighting within the squad aren’t going away, voices want the likes of Babar Azam and Abdullah Shafique but the captain has come out strongly to defend them. The reality is Pakistan are in poor form, and they seem on the decline – not only that, there are a huge number of issues domestically. Perhaps the ground and wicket situation for this tour highlighted an element of that too. From an England point of view, expectations have to come up here given the recent setbacks for Pakistan. Losing to Bangladesh was a real low point for Pakistan, and now they face a new look Bazball without Jimmy Anderson who retired during the English summer.
Anderson is still involved in the England set up, and it will be fascinating to see how the England bowlers perform here. They lost the last Test of the home summer against Sri Lanka, probably switching off to be honest. Ben Stokes has been under pressure to get fit for this series too, and that just adds a bit of spice to what should be a fascinating series ahead!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
As I said above, we begin in Multan – in International terms, there really hasn’t been much Test cricket here; only six Tests in their history but obviously a large part of that is the huge gap when there was no International cricket in Pakistan. We didn’t see Test cricket here between 2006 and 2022; the Test in 2022 was the England tour which is realistically the only guide have to scoring. England won by 26 runs with scores of 281 and 275 – Pakistan posted 202 and 328. I would expect quite similar scores, a draw would be a surprise – especially considering the way England have been playing Test cricket over the last few years. I think you’d have to have a pretty open mind on scoring here, especially with all the drama leading up to the series where we would actually have games.
RECOMMENDED BET:
England come into the game as the favourites at 2.26 and the market doesn’t rate the draw here, that’s trading 5.6 with Pakistan 2.6. I’m happy to keep stakes reasonably low here pre-off because I want to be against the draw, but I am also aware that given we had so many likely changes to plans; what kind of wicket can we expect? Sometimes in the subcontinent we can get raging turners but we can also get quite dead wickets if they are under prepared. I know England will try to move the game on given they play Bazball, but that worry with the wicket is at the back of my head. In terms of a winner, I like England at 2.26 – they won 3-0 on their last tour here, and this Pakistan side are seemingly all over the place at the moment.
The Edge Says:
Two points win England to beat Pakistan at 2.26 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/1PakEng
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
I went through why I would be cautious here with the draw price above; that’s certainly something to be very careful with in the early stages. Getting a read on the wicket over the first few openers will be very important here. I really don’t think it’s easy to form a set in-running strategy here until we see conditions. I’d expect the usual performance from the England batters – they will be positive and move the game on, we’ll probably have a collapse at some stage during the tour but given all the Pakistan batting worries, we’ll probably have a few collapses from them too! Unless the wicket is exceptionally flat and dead, this is a series that will favour the bowlers in my opinion.
