England easily won the tests in Bangladesh over the winter and can expect to win both the upcoming tests, starting on Thursday at Lords, by at least an innings. This makes it difficult to bet on the England batsmen as they are likely to only bat twice in the series, the Bangladesh opening partnership is the strongest in the team and this makes a small bet with Stan James at 7/4 for Bangladesh to have the highest 1st innings opening partnership a bet, they both played well in the warm up games and at home in the winter series. There is pressure on Cook and Strauss to perform and I think one is likely to go, early particularly if they are put into bat.
Among the many plus points over the winter where the performance of the two young bowlers Middlesex’s Steve Finn, 21 and Yorkshires Tim Bresnan, 25, though Bresnan may develop into a genuine Test all rounder in time it is his bowling that interests us today. The England bowlers should get some good movement off the pitch at Lords; in forecast overcast conditions and this will trouble the Bangladeshi batsmen. Expect quite a number of caught behinds with Matt Prior, now a solid keeper, ready to snap them all up, he has a point to prove with the batting after being left out of the 20/20 team so we can also expect him to score some runs if he gets the chance. This make his player performance with Sporting Index a buy at 84
Selections
1pt Bangladesh 1st inning Opening Partnership 7/4 (tie no bet) with Stan James
1pt Buy Matt Prior Player Performance at 84 with Sporting Index
