England vs West Indies Prediction: 5/1 Smith can justify Brook’s gamble

England meet West Indies in the 2^nd ODI on Sunday (11:00, live on Sky Sports Cricket) in Cardiff as the Windies look to level the Series after a proper thrashing first time up.

Read on for our cricket expert Jamie Pacheco's England vs West Indies predictions, complete with the latest odds and team news.

England posted a monster 400 and had batted the Windies out of the match by the halfway mark when we thought the visitors could spring as surprise. They couldn’t. Fine.

England decided to bat our pick Will Jacks at seven rather in the Top 3, giving Jamie Smith a chance at the top of the order in the hope he’ll become the next Adam Gilchrist. Jacks was good for his 39 off 24 but plenty of others coming in before him had more time and deliveries to clear 50, including eventual winner Jacob Bethell, with an excellent 82 off 53. Fine.

But what was a harder pill to swallow was our man Shai Hope getting to 25, watch every player after him getting out short of that score, only for Number 11 Jayden Seales to swing, slog and edge his way to a 29 that beat Hope’s 25. Sure, in truth you probably don’t deserve to win many bets when your pick only scores 25 but then again, you don’t really expect to see a Number 11 come out and play like that. Or at least get away with that.

So rather than winning at 3/1 on Hope and being up after the first match, we’re not. But we have two more games to set that right so that’s what we’ll try to do.

England vs West Indies Odds

England are 1/7 to record another victory in the series in Birmingham. West Indies are available at 9/2.

Team News

Fair play to England. They’re obviously hoping to carry on being positive with the bat now under Harry Brook and with the sort of players they have, that’s probably the way to go.

Only time will tell if Jacks in the middle-order and Smith at the top is the right move but they’ll surely carry on with that strategy for the rest of the Series.

The bowlers did their job well as well with the to note being Jamie Overton, whose five overs yielded three wickets at a low economy rate. Maybe England have surprisingly got this one right and he may prove to be a solid number 7 for the next few years, but not for the time being. He injured his thumb, is out for a month so the most logical replacement would be Matthew Potts even tough that leaves the batting a tad light.

Possible XI: Duckett, Smith, Root, Brook, Buttler, Bethell, Jacks, Carse, Potts, Rashid, Mahmood

The Windies won’t be the last side to be at the receiving end of a big knock from England’s swashbucklers so shouldn’t feel too bad about that defeat, albeit the margin of the win was worryingly big.

The decision to open with Justin Greaves seemed a bit odd though. He can bat yes, but opening in ODIs is a very specialised role and though Elvin Lewis isn’t the epitome of consistency, he probably deserves the gig rather than a makeshift opener doing it just to improve the balance of the side.

Lewis may therefore come into the side with Jewel Andrew possibly maybe making way. Or Shimron Hetmyer might get a game. He’s a real talent but fitness issues and decision making have always hampered his progress, so he can be a bit feast or famine.

Possible XI: King, Lewis/Greaves, Carty, Hope, Jangoo, Greaves/Andrew, Forde, Chase, Motie, Joseph, Seales

West Indies to win @ 9/2

It’s easy to assume we’re ging to get a repeat of what happened on Friday with England’s knowledge of conditions and fearless batting dominated proceedings.

And that may well happen but the chance to bowl first in testing conditions, bat second on a track where that’s an advantage and hope one batter (maybe Hope himself?) can get to 100 are enough reasons to think we can’t turn down a price of 9/2, on a side who will at least have learnt plenty during that Edgbaston humbling.

As readers of this column know, price is everything and there are enough reasons and factors to think the Windies should be a bit shorter.

Jamie Smith - Top Home Team Batter @ 5/1

The promotion of Jamie Smith to the top of the order was perhaps a sign that Brook wants to make a few changes of his own to get the team playing a in a certain way and I’d be amazed if he (Smith) didn’t at least get to bat there for the remainder of the Series, whatever the outcome of it.

Though his ODI career is very much in its infancy and nothing to write home about, also because he’s often batted much lower in ODIs for England so far, we’ve seen enough from him in Tests and First Class matches to suggest he’s a fine player, with plenty of aggression and that it’s only a matter of time before he scores tonne at better than a run-a-ball in this format.

Given 5/1 is normally a price reserved for a good middle-order batsmen where you’re relying on a top order collapse to have him in business… and it’s too big a price for such a talented player who’s almost certain to open.

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