Fast Results
Scores
Cricket betting tips: England v Australia ODI preview and best bets for Trent Bridge
England and Australia kick off their five-match ODI series at Trent Bridge on Thursday – Richard Mann previews the action.
Cricket betting tips: England v Australia ODI
2pts Both Teams To Score 300+ Runs at 11/4 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook)
*Available under 'What Odds Paddy?' and '#OddsOnThat' tabs
Bad weather ensured England and Australia were denied the opportunity to settle an interesting T20I series in Manchester on Sunday, so it’s next stop Nottingham for the first of five ODIs on Thursday, 12.30pm, UK time.
Australia will be grateful for reinforcements, namely Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc who all missed the T20I leg of the tour, with the bowling in particular feeling the pinch following a spate of injuries. Pat Cummins is rested for this tour.
That doesn’t necessarily mean England hold all the aces here, if any at all, and Australia will still go off warm favourites. After all, this is an England team very much in a rebuilding phase now, minus captain Jos Buttler, the absent Ben Stokes, and old heads Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and David Malan – the last-named pair both recently retired from international cricket.
Head leads powerful Australia batting
Australia are world champions in this format and along with their established star performers already mentioned, you can throw destructive trio Travis Head, Jake Fraser McGurk and Josh Inglis into the mix. It’s hard to know exactly how Australia fit so many good players into their top seven, but regardless, this is a very strong batting unit.
At the top of the order, Head has been making the headlines in the T20 format both in international and franchise cricket, but his recent 50-over numbers make for impressive reading, too. He’s only played one ODI in 2024, but in 2023 he averaged 51.81 in this format, with two hundreds, with the year before seeing him also compile two centuries and average 68.75.
If we get a good surface at Trent Bridge, Head could make hay again, with the rapid outfield here and short square boundaries seemingly ideal for his game. As such, I’m sure there will be plenty of takers in the Man of the Match market.
Head will set the tone at the top of the order and this Australia team looks full of runs to me. The bowling might be light in the absence of Cummins, and with Starc coming here off a layoff, but the tourists will bank on their batting.
In fact, both teams look to be in the same boat. While Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone, a late replacement for Buttler in the ODI squad, bowled well in the T20I series, the seamers found things much tougher. Like Australia, England look stronger with bat than ball.
Captain Brook returns for England
Test stars Harry Brook, Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith return, the former having been made captain for this series. Livingstone was exceptional in the two T20I matches last week, making scores of 37 and 87, while Phil Salt looked very good for his rapid 39 in Cardiff.
Again, I’m not certain as to how England will set up their top seven, but should Nottinghamshire opener Duckett get the nod at the top of the order, he’d be worth more than a second look in any top batsman markets. Duckett ended the Test summer with runs at the Oval, having enjoyed a fruitful time of it against the white ball in The Hundred previously.
For now, I’m more interested in playing runs. A decent weather forecast suggests good batting conditions will be in the offing and though runscoring wasn’t easy on this ground in The Hundred, I do wonder how much that was down to the requirements of home team Trent Rockets who had spinners Rashid Khan and Imad Wasim in their ranks.
The preceding T20 Blast wasn’t exactly a run-fest on this ground, either, but the pitch prepared for this summer’s Test match between England and West Indies was a beauty, the hosts making over 400 twice, and West Indies scoring 457 in their first innings before collapsing second time around.
Big runs forecast in Trent Bridge sunshine
Last September, England and Ireland enjoyed a high-scoring ODI match on this ground. Will Jacks made 94 as England amassed 334-8 batting first, before Ireland made a very good fist of the run chase in replying with 286. Earlier that month, New Zealand chased down 176 in a T20I against England in only 17.2 overs.
In terms of international cricket, at least, the recent evidence would suggest we ought to have sound conditions for batting on Thursday, and looking at the strengths of the two sides in question, that would suit both camps.
As such, I’ll be backing runs, with BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE 300+ RUNS at 11/4 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook) looking a solid play at this stage.
Posted at 1055 BST on 18/09/24
Related links
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling.
Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.