England vs India: England to continue Test dominance in T20
Published:England have already hammered India 4-0 in the Test series this summer and there is no reason to suggest that the winning run will not continue in tonight’s T20 encounter at Old Trafford.
Stuart Broad lost his first game as T20 captain to Sri Lanka in June and also only has five of the players at his disposal who starred for England when they won the T20 World Cup last year.
However, India are also heavily depleted, with Gautem Gambhir injured and Sachin Tendulkar retired from international T20 cricket, although the latter may be asked to play because of a batting shortage.
Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh are others who are absent, which have partly resulted in Rahul Dravid being set to make his T20 debut at the age of 38.
England’s cricket odds are 8/11 to beat India and they are poised to hand debuts to Alex Hales, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler.
Hales is a potential candidate to open the batting with Craig Kieswetter and his big-hitting style could make him a decent bet in the top England runscorer market at 4/1.
The one big decision for England is whether to pick Samit Patel, with the Old Trafford pitch seemingly more conducive to spin since the pitch was turned around.
India have a rich one-day pedigree and are the reigning World Cup champions, albeit over 50 overs.
They can call upon potential young stars Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel to shine with the bat, with the duo both absent from the Test humiliations.
Kohli is 5/1 to be India’s top runscorer, with Patel, who top-scored in the recent victory over Leicestershire, 4/1 in the same market.
India are 11/10 in the cricket odds to beat England.
