THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews the start of the summer Ashes on Friday at Edgbaston with a recommended BETDAQ bet for the 1st Test.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Ashes summer is upon us. We have a huge summer of cricket on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, and we kick off the 1st Ashes Test on Friday Edgbaston. Australia come into the Ashes fresh off a World Test Championship win against India at the Oval on Sunday – they’ll go back to the Oval at the end of July for the 5th Test hoping to add an Ashes win to what would then be a wonderful summer in England. In their way is a fantastic England Test side, who are literally changing the way Test cricket is played under Brendon McCullum.
Bazball has been a roaring success so far. This England Test side is feared around the world, and they have broken records while winning series after series. Despite that success, you just know the English media will be on the sides back here if things go wrong. This Australian seam attack is very strong, and if England collapse playing attacking cricket they will definitely get criticised in the media afterwards. I think they have had so much success now to not be bothered by that, but make no mistake – this series is the acid test of “bazball” and whether it’s going to be deemed, in the media anyway, a success or not.
England warmed up for this with an easy win over Ireland – it’s hard to read too much into that given how weak the Ireland bowling is, plus England opted to not play anyone carrying a niggle or anything like that. The Australian prep has obviously been much better playing the World Test Championship Final, and their batting couldn’t come into the game in better form. It will be absolutely fascinating to see how this Test goes, and indeed how the tone is set for the rest of the series. A massive summer awaits!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
It goes without saying that Edgbaston will be jammed for the start of the series, and we generally get an excellent cricket crowd in Birmingham. The weather looks set fair over the five days from Friday, with a mix of sunny and cloudy spells – obviously picking the right time to bowl to going to be key and when we do get those cloudy conditions might just decide the Test. Edgbaston has been a result venue for a while now – you have to go back to 2012 for the last draw and that was very badly weather affected. Australia won by a whopping 251 runs in 2019 here, but the last two Tests have been won by the side who bowled first. I wouldn’t be surprised if around 400 was par for both first innings, and then it gets tougher to score – in general that is because these two batting line-ups are very strong!
RECOMMENDED BET:
With the way these two play their cricket and the venue producing results lately, it is very hard to see a draw here. The one thing you’d say about Edgbaston however is that we generally see decent scores, I wouldn’t rule out a trade on the draw at 6.0 but as an outright result I can’t see it. I feel this is a straight shootout between the two results – there’s only ten ticks between the sides with Australia favourites at 2.34 and England trading 2.44. I feel England will do well this series, but for this Test Australia are in a much better spot in my opinion. England’s warm up Test was very one sided, and their batters could easily struggle against the Aussie pace attack to start the series. Australia shade this one for me, but I still expect a very close series!
The Edge Says:
Two points win Australia to beat England at 2.34 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngAus1
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
As I mentioned above, there will be times of sunshine and times of cloud this Test. Picking when to support the batters and bowlers will be key – and that key is generally looking up and not down! It will be very interesting to see how the wicket players – the word is Ben Stokes and England have requested flat tracks so they can attack with the bat. The draw is trading 6.0 and it could be worth a trade in the first two days – generally it’s tougher to bat in the third and fourth innings here. Australia are in an excellent place with the bat coming into this Test, and I feel the best opportunity will be to lay England while Australia are batting in their first innings – I feel England have more chance of collapsing than Australia. I’m fascinated to see how England’s tactics go against this very talented Aussie pace attack.
