ENGLAND v INDIA: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Wednesday’s 1st Test between ENGLAND v INDIA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

It’s the start of a massive Test series as England host India! A five Test series is a very rare thing these days, with probably only England v India and The Ashes left these days given the money in limited over cricket! This should be an excellent Test series – England are going through a bit of a dip in form in the Test department so while India always tend to struggle with English conditions, they will surely fancy their chances. We should have plenty of twists and turns in-play on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, and it should be a brilliant series for trading.

England suffered a blow in the lead up to this series with Ben Stokes ruled out with a finger injury and t focus on his mental health. England have a lot of major tours coming up, along with the IPL of course, and players are starting to suffer from being in the bio-secure bubble. India also have selection issues, with the fitness of Rahane in question, and also Shubman Gill is injured so Mayank Agarwal will open with Rohit Sharma.

I feel we will learn a lot in this opening Test as we get a feel for how the series will go. With the series extending into September, India are going to struggle with conditions. They always tend to struggle with the moving ball and you’d imagine we’ll get some swinging conditions in early September. We could also get bad weather too, so a good start to the series might actually be the winning of the tour! Whatever happens, it should be fascinating between these two sides.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

We start the tour at Trent Bridge where we have had some recent Hundred games, however I wouldn’t pay much attention to those scores! The last Test match here was in 2018, obviously we have a big gap at some grounds with Covid19 stopping sport for so long. That game was actually an India tour too and it took place in the month of August. India won by 203 runs, scoring 329 and 352/7 while bowling England out for 161 and 317. India set a target of 521 in the final innings! This actually hasn’t been a good ground for England recently, as in the Test prior to that they lost by 340 runs to South Africa, with South Africa scoring 335 and 343/9 and then bowling England out for 205 and 133. You can kind of get an idea what scores to expect from those two games, with anything over 300 putting the side batting first in a good position. I would definitely bat first if I won the toss, unless it was very cloudy overhead.

RECOMMENDED BET:

England were pretty poor in the early summer against New Zealand, but then against India lost to New Zealand in the World Test Championship a couple of weeks after. I’m happy to keep stakes low for the 1st Test, as I am worried about India handling English conditions; however I’m happy to take on England here at the prices. They are a side in decline in the Test arena, will have had a few players come straight into this series from The Hundred which isn’t ideal and they’ve lost Ben Stokes. I also want to keep the draw onside with the showers forecast for the UK so I’m happy to lay England at 2.76. I expect India to perform a lot better than that price suggests. However, it’s also a sign of how weak England are at the moment, as usually they would be much shorter to beat India in English conditions.

The Edge Says:
One point lay England to beat India at 2.76 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange

View the market here -> https://bit.ly/BDQEngInd1

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

A huge amount of your in-running strategy will have to focus on the weather here. It is changeable at the moment, so a lot of radar watching will have to be done! Even when it doesn’t rain, the overhead conditions always come into play in Test cricket. That’s definitely an angle here, but even when the batting conditions are good I would still be worried about this England batting. They just haven’t been good enough recently, and unless Joe Root gets a big score you always feel a collapse is always around the corner. And also for England, Anderson and Broad aren’t getting any younger – they are still top class, but you can definitely see England having a lot of issues in the years coming.