THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Tuesday’s 1st T20 between Pakistan v England with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

All roads now lead to the T20 World Cup on BETDAQ Betting Exchange as sides around the world start their preparations. England are in Pakistan for a seven game T20 tour, and we should have a great idea of where these two sides stand by the end of the series. Pakistan come in as favourites, but there won’t be much between the sides here. England had a pretty poor summer in T20 losing to India and South Africa, and while Pakistan made it to the Asia Cup Final they lost to Sri Lanka. It’s clear both sides have their flaws, but they have both explosive sides with so much batting talent.

Pakistan will benefit from home advantage here massively – they always tend to do well at home, and they have had some massive results since teams have started touring again. England will have the highest security detail possible, and it’s nice to see them back. Pakistan come into the series with injury problems – Shaeen Shah Afridi remains out, and he is now a doubt for the World Cup too. What a massive blow that would be for Pakistan. Fakhar Zaman is also out for this season, but England have their issues too – Jonny Baristow is out and with Eoin Morgan retiring in the summer their middle order does look shaky, especially with Ben Stokes rested too.

This series is going to be fantastic viewing, and to be honest we should have plenty of ups and downs over the seven games. The England top order look very settled, but obviously with a number of players missing there are spots to be claimed in the middle order. It’s interesting to see Alex Hales back in the England set-up too. He’s had a good summer, but he does have a lot of history with England – himself and Stokes had a brawl in 2017, but maybe with so many younger players in this squad he will fit in.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

Given the high security needed to get England to tour Pakistan, we will only see two grounds despite there being seven T20’s on the tour. We start in Karachi with the first four games and then move to Lahore for the final three. Obviously we’ve had a huge gap in International cricket here, but with the Pakistan Super League now back in Pakistan we do have a little understanding of conditions. Scoring is usually very high here, and I would expect a par score to be around 180. We can get a heavy dew, and there’s no question what you want to do at the toss here – you bowl first. The chasing side tends to do very well here.

RECOMMENDED BET:

Pakistan are rightfully favourites given they have home advantage and England are missing Bairstow and Stokes. However, I wouldn’t have them as short as 1.7. Let’s not forget that Pakistan are missing their key bowler, and although they made it to the Asia Cup Final they were beaten by Sri Lanka twice which was a surprise. Even before that, they beat Netherlands 3-0 in an ODI series but two of the games were reasonably close and that was a sub-par performance from Pakistan. Add in to the mix that if England chase here it will be an advantage too, and I feel England at 2.36 are definitely a good value bet.

The Edge Says:
Two points win England to beat Pakistan at 2.36 with Betdaq Exchange.

View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/PakEng

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

This is the first game here so we won’t form a plan we are fully set on, but there are some angles to look at. We should have a good idea on what conditions to expect after this game. However, from looking at the ground data here we can expect a pretty big score, and then chasing is the best option too. Basically with two reasonably weak bowling line-ups given the situation I would expect a high scoring game. I wouldn’t spend long looking for trades on either side while bowling, and I would solely focus on both batting sides. I would expect the market to move for a score of 170+ but I really want to get with the chasing side here at the innings break. I expect that will be the best in-play trade.