Cricket World Cup Odds 2023: Can England defend title?

The Cricket World Cup starts this week and in anticipation of such a festival of cricket taking place, we have previewed the tournament and provided our best outright bets for the event. 

History and Dates

This is the 13th running of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, which is usually held every four years and consists of the best men’s international cricket teams playing each other in a 50-over One Day International format.

The first ever World Cup was held in 1975 in England and was won by the West Indies, who defended their title four years later in 1979.

Australia are the dominant side in the history of the event, winning a record five titles, including three in a row between 1999 and 2007.

The defending champions are England (who also hold the T20 World Cup title), having defeated New Zealand in the 2019 final, via a super over.

This year’s tournament will be held exclusively in India for the first time and will run from 5th October, right through until the final on the 19th November 2023.

Every single game will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports.

Location and Stadia

The tournament will be played all over the country of India, with 10 different stadiums in-play. This will see sides covering huge distances between group games and see vastly different types of climate and pitch conditions to contend with.

The semi-finals will be played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, with the final taking place at the 132,000 capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Prize Money

There is a $10m total prize fund with the money distributed as follows:

Format

10 sides have qualified for the Cricket World Cup, with hosts India gaining automatic qualification and the seven other sides at the top of the Cricket World Cup Super League also gaining automatic entry.

The last two places were decided in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, which saw the bottom five countries from the Super League and the top five associate sides in the world compete against one another.

Sri Lanka and the Netherlands were successful, which meant that inaugural two-time champions, West Indies failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in their history.

In stark contrast to the T20 World Cup, the group stage consists of a single group playing a round-robin format, with each side playing each other in a total of 45 group fixtures.

The top four sides at the end of the group stage go into the semi finals, with top spot playing fourth and second place playing third.

Squads

INDIA – Host Nation – 2/1

Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

AFGHANISTAN – 125/1

Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq.

AUSTRALIA – 9/2

Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.

BANGLADESH – 100/1

Shakib Al Hasan (c), Litton Kumer Das, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Najmul Hossain Shanto (vc), Tawhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nasum Ahmed, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib.

ENGLAND – 10/3

Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.

NEW ZEALAND – 10/1

Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young.

PAKISTAN – 7/1

Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim.

SOUTH AFRICA – 10/1

Temba Bavuma (c), Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Lizaad Williams.

SRI LANKA – Qualifier – 33/1

Dasun Shanaka (c), Kusal Mendis (vc), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Kumara, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushan Hemantha

NETHERLANDS – Qualifier – 1000/1

Scott Edwards (c), Max O’Dowd, Bas de Leede, Vikram Singh, Teja Nidamanuru, Paul van Meekeren, Colin Ackermann, Roelof van der Merwe, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt, Ryan Klein, Wesley Barresi, Saqib Zulfiqar, Shariz Ahmad, Sybrand Engelbrecht.

Selections

England to win – 10/3

England still appear unsure of what their best team is and have had a disrupted preparation for their World Cup defence.

Two abandonments against Ireland were followed up by another in their warm-up match against India and as I write this, their 2nd warm-up fixture against Bangladesh has been reduced to 35 overs.

However, whatever side Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott go with, it will be a ridiculously strong one.

England beat old foes New Zealand 3-1 in a recent ODI series and that was without the sheer pace of Mark Wood, who will be a huge threat here.

The batting lineup is as destructive as ever and Bairstow, Malan, Root, Stokes, Brook, Buttler, Livingstone and Ali is as strong as any in world cricket.

It seems a sure thing that England will make the semi’s, given the elongated nature of the group stage. From there, it’s anyone’s tournament but there will be no side going into it with as much confidence as England.

New Zealand to finish in top 4 – 11/8

The Black Caps managed to hang with England for the majority of the back-end of the English summer, holding them to a draw in the T20 and playing them off the park in Cardiff.

New Zealand are not fancied by many but they finished top of the ICC Super League, which served as the qualification for this tournament and Kane Williamson & Co. play to more than a sum of their parts.

I think they will sneak into the semi-finals ahead of South Africa and Pakistan.

Dawid Malan top run scorer – 11/1

As I’m writing this piece Dawid Malan has just fallen for four runs against Bangladesh but that is his first failure for some time.

The 36-year-old is in the form of his life and scored 54, 96 and 127 against New Zealand in the recent series.

The Yorkshire star averages just over 64 in his ODI career to date and is the gel that holds the England innings together.

With Joe Root out of form, it will be up to the likes of Malan to provide balance to the devastating hitting of Bairstow, Brook, Stokes and Livingstone.

Trent Boult top wicket taker – 12/1

My last selection is another wily old veteran in the form of New Zealand left-arm pacer Trent Boult.

The 34-year-old negotiated a release from his central contract in a bid to concentrate on franchise cricket and as a result spent almost a year out of the side.

Since his recall ahead of the England ODI series, Boult has looked back to something approaching his best, swinging the new ball in devastating fashion against the top order.

In the two matches he played in England, Boult picked up a combined 8/88 and snaffled a couple more against Bangladesh just a week ago.

He is approaching 200 wickets in ODI’s at a clip over 23 and will take wickets at will in this tournament.