Australia v England Prediction: 3/1 Head with the bat, 6/1 Ali with the ball

It’s Australia v England on Saturday, June 8 (18:00, Sky Sports Cricket) at Bridgetown as Australia look to kick on and England look to get their first win on the board in the big clash of the Group.

James Pacheco is looking at an Aussie opener at 3/1 and an England spinner at 6/1 to turn over a profit in the day’s biggest match as he takes us through his Australia vs England T20 World Cup Predictions...

Australia

If you want to see a good example of a side who can’t adapt to conditions on the day, perform as a hot favourite and get the job done by hook or by crook, look at someone like Pakistan. If you want a good example of a side who can do all those things, look no further than Australia.

Not that they deserve a pat on the back for beating Oman. The pre-match odds suggested they were as much of a gimme as you’ll find at this tournament. But they put the early loss of Travis Head to one side, worked out what they needed and got on with the job with minimum of fuss. Like the champs they are.

Mind you, they can thank the superb all-round performance of Marcus Stoinis for it all being so comfortable. The burly all-rounder was both their top batsman (67) and bowler (3-19) to make him one of the easiest choices for Player of the Match you’ll see this month.

Glenn Maxwell is becoming a problem. Having been horribly out of form in the IPL, he followed it up with a golden duck here, though we did note two good overs of spin going for just 11 runs. ‘The Big Show’ may be in big trouble regarding his place if he has another poor game against Jos Buttler’s boys.

Pat Cummins has had his rest after IPL exertions and should come in for Nathan Ellis. Which is harsh on Ellis because he took 2-28 off his four.

Possible XI: Head, Warner, Marsh, Maxwell, Stoinis, David, Wade, Cummins, Starc, Zampa, Hazlewood.

England

Will England look back at their washed out match against Scotland as a missed opportunity? Or as dodging a big bullet in what looked a steep chase in tough conditions? We’ll never know but things are looking trickier for them from here than they did a few days ago.

What isn’t up for debate is that they didn’t bowl well, allowing Scotland’s openers to get 90 off 10 overs without getting out. If George Munsey and Michael Jones are doing that to you, what might the likes of Head, David Warner and Stoinis do?

Positives…Jofra Archer and Mark Wood both bowled quickly and they’ll need plenty of gas from those two again here. Given they only bowled two overs each, there’s no need to think about resting either of them here, if that was even in the Selectors’ minds. They should be unchanged.

Possible XI: Buttler, Salt, Jacks, Bairstow, Brook, Ali, Livingstone, Jordan, Archer, Rashid, Wood.

Pitch and conditions

Like with most pitches at this World Cup, it’s not so easy to know what to expect at Bridgetown.

It saw a low-scoring match between Oman and Namibia that went to a Super Over, saw Australia post a very good 164/5 against Oman and Scotland chase 156 with relative ease against Namibia.

That last match showed it’s a tricky surface against accurate spin bowling but also that if you’re set, boundaries are there for the taking, especially if you hit straight towards a slightly shorter boundary.

Both sides will probably want to chase but England will be aware their record doing so over the last two years is pretty poor.

Australia vs England Odds

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Australia are 8/11 to win here.

Reasons for that are the fact they will have learnt more about this pitch after playing a full 40 overs here, their good all-round performance in that Oman match and that England just look a bit out-of-sorts in general.

You’ll see worse bets than that this week but we’d rather know they’re chasing before going in at that price.

Australia Top Batsman

Travis Head missed out against Oman, chipping one to mid-wicket.

But he had a fine IPL and crucially would have faced bowlers of the sort of pace that Wood and Archer possess for the best part of two months over in India, albeit on quite different sorts of wickets. Besides, he faces a bowler of that sort of pace every day in the nets in the form of Mitchell Starc.

It’s still a little hard to tell whether at Bridgetown it’s easier to bat at the top of the order or a bit lower down but at least we know that with 3/1 Head he’s guaranteed a bat. We also know that on his day he can score extremely quickly and a whirlwind 40 or 50 may just be enough here with the field up, before the spinners come on and take advantage of a low, turning surface.

Matthew Wade also makes some appeal at 14/1 as a good player of spin but this is a good Aussie batting line-up and he may not get much of a chance down at seven, so he’s one to keep an eye on.

But Head it is.

England Top Bowler

If it does spin, Rashid could be in the game for England top bowler at 100/30. He’s extremely experienced and is after all England’s top wicket-taker in T20Is.

But at almost twice the price, you can go with the other frontline spinner in the side: Moeen Ali.

There’s a decent chance that England decide not to risk Livingstone or Jacks with the ball which would mean using just five bowlers and that means Ali will give you a good run for your money by bowling all four, at a big-looking 6/1.

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Cricket Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Cricket hub page...