THE EDGE: The Edge previews the Test between England v Zimbabwe with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The English Test summer kicks off on Thursday as England host Zimbabwe in a once off Test. As you would expect, England come into the game as the red-hot favourites on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, and this will be viewed as a warm up Test for bigger opposition to come later this summer. That will be England’s point of view, but for Zimbabwe they have a massive year ahead of them – they are playing the joint-most Tests in 2025 from all of the full-members; Ireland cricket must be looking on wondering where they are going wrong.
Every summer is big for England, but some are more important than others. India are coming at the end of June for a five match series which is obviously massive – the Ashes and India are basically the only five Test series England play now. England took the opportunity to give Jimmy Anderson a little nudge to retire last summer when they hosted relatively weak opposition. Now this summer they will be tested. Anderson has also moved away from the coaching staff, with Tim Southee coming in. The good news for England is that Ben Stokes is fully fit – he’s even saying that he can bowl which has been a big issue lately.
It’ll be interesting to see how Zimbabwe perform here, and now they can deal with this England bowling line-up. Obviously England have a lot of young impressive bowlers, but let’s be honest – how to do replace Broad and Anderson who have been at the top of their game for years. That’s going to take time – for England, they might be able to blow Zimbabwe away here but they will be judged this summer. A massive English summer awaits!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Trent Bridge are hosting the sole Test, and despite being one of the major Test grounds in England, they haven’t hosted too much Test cricket recently. Obviously we did have Covid19 which was a factor around the world, but we’ve only had four Tests here since 2018. There was disappointment that they didn’t get to host an Ashes test. This has primarily been a result venue – only two draws here going back to 2003 from 17 Tests. Those two draws were against India too. The weather forecast isn’t set-fair here though – rain is forecast over the weekend.
RECOMMENDED BET:
As I said above, it’s no surprise to see England come into this game as the red-hot favourites. A home win will be fully expected here, and anything bar that will be a big shock and talking point heading into the India series. Zimbabwe lost away to Ireland last summer, and Ireland have had a huge amount of issues with actually playing Test cricket given how their finances are looked after. I can’t see past a comfortable England win here, but 1.19 I can’t tip a price like that in good faith. I would considering getting involved if they trade 1.35+ in-running.
The Edge Says: No Bet.
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngZim
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
On paper, this should be a pretty one sided Test match. England might have a young bowling attack, but you’d have to expect the Zimbabwe batting to struggle in the conditions. Obviously we have rain forecast over the weekend too, so there should be some nice opportunities to trade the draw price – there will be a lot of radar watching this Test!
