WEST INDIES v ENGLAND: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews the 1st Test on Tuesday between WEST INDIES v ENGLAND with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

The feast of Test cricket continues on Tuesday as England begin their tour of the West Indies. It’s nice that this is a three Test tour which allows for more chance of a winner, I don’t really enjoy the two Test series like we had recently between New Zealand and South Africa, but we did have some big swings in-running on BETDAQ Betting Exchange. The passing of Shane Warne in recent days has left a big shadow over cricket all around the world, and the build-up to this series has moved to “back round noise” as cricket remembers a wonderful man both on and off the pitch.

In ordinary times, surely there would be a lot more chat about England playing without James Anderson and Stuart Broad. They have lead the England attack for long, but alas time is catching up on them. Age is undefeated as they say, and although England have been “rotating” them a few years now, this seems the start of a new era without the two of them. In typical fashion, a couple of the replacements picked up knocks in the warm-up games and that will definitely put pressure on the management in what they are calling a “red ball reset.”

Mark Wood has seemingly caught a bug, but I’m guessing he’ll be OK by the time this Test starts. Likewise Ollie Robinson had a back spasm, but again you’d imagine he will be OK. The team news at the toss here will probably move the market, so watch out for that. West Indies have an excellent record when hosting England, and this promises to be another fantastic series. The England batting have questions to answer, and we have been getting tricky batting conditions in the West Indies for a few years now.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

It’s nice that we are back to moving stadiums again, and we have three different venues for this Test series. I don’t mind staying at the same venue for a one day game, but it can get boring with Test cricket. You could say that about the recent ground history too – the last two Tests have finished with a draw at North Sound. However, the four before that saw a result. The last time England played here in 2019 they lost by ten wickets, and I feel if the ground history is anything to go by you probably want to bowl first. Conditions seem to get better as the Test goes on, and we’ve seen a lot of if scores in the third innings here after sides were on the backfoot from the first innings. That always tends to lead to a draw because the side won’t declare early or anything like that – more than likely they are trying to kill time. We’ll have the draw hanging around all Test in my view.

RECOMMENDED BET:

It’s fascinating to see how England get on here without Anderson and Broad. Plus the fact that they tend to start tours slowly these days and also they don’t have a good record in the West Indies. They will still start this Test as favourites because there is a gulf in class between the sides, there’s no getting away from that. I want to see how this “red ball reset” goes for England before having a large stake involved, so I will be keeping stakes low here. I’m keen on the draw here to be honest – the wicket tends to get better as play goes on at North Sound and I feel it’s worth backing at 4.8. We have had a lot of spinning conditions in the West Indies recently and I know batting can be tough at times here, but if we don’t see a very low score in the first innings I think the draw goes very close.

The Edge Says:
One point win Draw at 4.8 BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.

View the market here -> https://bit.ly/BDQWIEng1

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

As I said above, with England have a few minor injury worries I would try and get as much information on the team news as possible here – we can easily see the market move at the toss when the captains give out the starting XI. You’d expect Mark Wood to start, but if he’s missing then England are in a bit of trouble in my view. After that, I feel the side bowling first will have an edge first up – the scores tend to get better here as the game goes on and the side batting first will be under pressure. Although I fancy the draw long-term, it might pay to wait until the new ball has been used and then look for the draw trade. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the second and third innings have a higher score than the first innings if ground history is anything to go by. With the draw hanging around all Test, it’s surely going to be an excellent Test for trading. There’s a lot of question marks about this England side so I can’t see it being all one way traffic for the favourites.