England vs India Predictions: Can Tongue Mop up at 14/5 for Top England Bowler?

It’s the much-awaited Second Test between England and India at Edgbaston, start time 11:00 on Wednesday, with live coverage on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event.    

Jamie Pacheco was back to winning ways with a 13/2 pick of Ollie Pope for England first-innings top batsman in the First Test but is moving his allegiances to Zak Crawley this time, while 14/5 Josh Tongue could be top bowler courtesy of some cheap late wickets. Let's check out his England vs India Predictions below in his match preview for us at Betfred Insights...

*You can check out all of our Cricket Odds over at betfred.com

England 

These two produced a cracking Test first up and Ollie Pope produced a cracker of a knock with 106 to top score in the first innings and hand us a priceless 13/2 winner that means we're almost back in the black for the English summer. Chris Woakes, our other selection, failed to take a wicket so we lost a point on him.  

There were heroes everywhere in that win and it was a pleasing sight to see Ben Stokes back as a proper all-rounder.  

With pretty much all the batsmen scoring runs and Jofra Archer not deemed fit enough just yet, England have named the same XI.  

XI:  Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir. 

India  

India will have been bitterly disappointed to have lost but there were some positives in the form of four (!) different centurions in the match (for good measure Rishabh Pant scored two) while Jasprit Bumrah took five wickets in the first innings and Ravindra Jadeja played the role of all-rounder to good effect.  

Only India will know if they're planning on playing Bumrah here or resting him. If he misses out Arshdeep Singh could come in. Elsewhere, the ineffective Shardul Thakur could lose his place to Singh or to spinner Kuldeep Yadav. The Top 7 should remain the same.   

Possible XI:  KL Rahul, Jaiswal, Sudharasan, Gill, Nair/Reddy, Pant, Jadeja, Thakur, Siraj, Krishna, Bumrah.   

Pitch and conditions.  

This should be a belter of a wicket at Edgbaston if County Championship scores have been anything to go by this season; in 5 of the 10 first innings played here this season, 450 was busted.  

The weather for the first three days should be hot and sunny, the wicket will be flat, and will only get better as the game progresses, so this could be a pitch made for Bazball-style cricket.  

It would be no surprise if Stokes bowls first (or 'well have a chase' as he likes to put it) if he wins the toss, just because that's what England feel most comfortable doing.     

England vs India Second Test Odds

England are 8/11, implied probability of 57.9% with India 12/5 (29.4%) and the draw 7/2 (22%).  

India don't look a great bet.  Despite the fact they scored five centuries in the match, they were still guilty of lower middle-order collapses on both occasions, while Bumrah was often lacking support and the fielding was poor with dropped catches almost causing Mohammad Siraj to tear his hair out. They had a great chance to win that game and may not get a better one, so we swerve the price.  

If you're going to back England, it may be worth keeping your powder dry till they reach about 6/4 in live betting. Zimbabwe aside, they don't tend to dominate games from start to finish but rather defy the odds to win when they do so I'd be amazed if you don't get a bigger price than that 8/11 at some stage. Whether it goes on to win or not… 

Which leaves us with the draw, arguably the value price of the three. Beautiful sunny conditions where the runs will flow for the first three days followed by possible rain at the weekend is just the recipe for a potential draw. Yes, we know, this Bazball lot don't do draws. But India and the conditions will have a say in that, too. But we have better bets elsewhere.  

England Top Batsman  

Zak Crawley can consider himself pretty fortunate to have been in the side for the First Test and though he fell cheaply in the first innings, his 65 in the second set the foundations for a famous win.  

It may just give him the confidence he needed, and this Edgbaston pitch may be just up his street. He should be able to play through the line, bat nice and aggressively and as we know, is a man who likes to kick on when he gets going. He's 11/2 here and that looks big.  

Duckett (4/1) is becoming a serious run machine, but he can't always come off whereas Joe Root (11/4) as we know, is better suited to second innings heroics, as we saw last week. Pope (5/1) could go well again but we won on him last week so won't double down. Any sort of collapse could make the 9/1 on Jamie Smith look a huge price but on such a good wicket, there may be a couple of centurions before he even gets to the crease. Crawley it is at a surprisingly big price.  

England Top Bowler  

I was interested to learn in the First Test that Josh Tongue is known as the Mop…because he has a habit of mopping up the tail.  

In the first innings he took 4-86 and in the second it was 3/72. He dead heated on both occasions but at decent odds, which resulted in decent payouts.  

Shoaib Bashir (9/2) may not get much of a bowl the first time round, whereas Stokes (4/1) may have to manage his workload. Brydon Carse (14/5) and Chris Woakes (11/4) in particular are serious threats but if the wicket plays well, England's bowler's best chance of success might be when India's lower middle-order are going for quick runs, which may open the door to the Mop. Let's hope so.    

Jamie Pacheco Cricket P/L 2025: 

• Points Staked: 51.5 

• Points Returned: 49.13 

• Current P/L: -2.37 

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football 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...