India vs England Prediction: Champion spinners to the fore in Ahmedabad for 3rd ODI

India host England in the third and final of a three-match ODI series on Wednesday in Ahmedabad with a start time of 08:00, the match being broadcast live on TNT Sports 1.   

Jamie Pacheco is just over three points in profit for the Series after a small winner on Sunday followed up a good one last week and is picking his bets and stakes carefully ahead of this one. You can check out his two India vs England Predictions for the match below...

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

India  

An even more comprehensive win than in the first match with India making light work of a chase of 305.  

With the ball, Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers with 3/35, a reminder of this cricket superstar's ability to be a real match-winner with contributions in either of the three disciplines. It's a good thing he hasn't retired from ODIs the way he has from T20Is because he's still one if their best players in this format and offers excellent balance.  

But in the end, it was Rohit Sharma who was man of the match for his whirlwind 119 in the chase that never left the result in any doubt. Shubman Gill got his second fifty in as any games to help the cause as well but Virat Kohli was out for just 5 on a good wicket.  

Interestingly, India seem to be preferring KL Rahul to Rishabh Pant as their keeper and middle order batsman, safely in the knowledge that left-handers like Jadeja and Axar Patel can be pushed up the order for a right-handed/left-handed combination. If that's the thinking regarding preference for Rahul, then you'd think they might as well play him in this game, too, with the Champions Trophy coming up.  

Mohammed Shami may be due a rest but Jasprit Bumrah, in the squad for this match, may not yet be fit to play and is a major doubt for the Champions Trophy.  

Possible XI:  Sharma, Gill, Kohli, Iyer, Axar, Pant/Rahul, Pandya, Jadeja,  Arshdeep, Shami/Rana, Chakravarthy/Kuldeep.   

England  

Despite getting to the magical mark of 300, England should really have managed about 330 rather than 304 but part of the problem was that no-one got to 100.  

That included our 4/1 pick Ben Duckett, who made 65 and was pipped by Joe Root's 69, who looked like being out before getting to fifty, only for a small spike suggesting the ball had brushed the glove emerging on Snicko, in what was otherwise a very good LBW shout.  

Still, Liam Livingstone's run out ensured we ended the game in profit because our main bet was that there would be a run out in the game. Admittedly, there were another two England bastmen run out and a further Indian one! But we were already home and dry on that one with Livingstone.  

Worryingly for England it's hard to see what they can do to improve their game or indeed their fortunes. There isn't a star player coming back from injury or someone else they can call up out of nowhere who may make a big difference.  

Simple as it sounds, they just need the men who are there to up their game, make smarter choices and execute better.   

Jacob Bethell is carrying an injury so is unlikely to play when they don't need to risk him.  

Possible XI: Duckett, Salt, Root, Brook, Buttler, Livingstone, Overton, Carse/Atkinson, Archer, Rashid, Mahmood/Wood.   

Pitch and conditions   

We're at Ahmedabad this time, which as IPL fans will know, is the home  of the Gujarat Titans.  

There's been plenty of ODI cricket played here over the years including five matches from the 2023 World Cup.  

That included England's heavy defeat to New Zealand in the opening game of the tournament and India losing the final here to Australia.  

280-300 will probably be seen as a good score here batting first and there doesn't seem to be a toss bias as to whether it's best to bat or bowl first. In other words, it's a pretty fair wicket all round.   

India vs England 3rd ODI Odds

India are 4/9 (implied probability of 69%) which is a curious increase in price  

for this one, because they were bigger ahead of the last one and won it so comfortably, as we know.  That can only be down to the belief that they'll either take their foot off the pedal in a dead rubber or make plenty of changes. If it's the latter, it may not make much difference because their 'bench' is probably the best in the world in international cricket.  

There might be takers of England at 7/4 (36.4%) who think the two factors above may well make all the difference. But I'm not one of them, so once again, I'll leave this market alone. We haven't needed to play it so far to be in profit.  

India/England Top Bowler markets  

Right now we're 3.23 points in profit for the ODI Series, having returned a healthy profit in the T20I Series as well. So here's what we're NOT going to do: give away our profits on a dead rubber where there may yet be some somewhat surprising team changes.  

So instead, we're risking just 0.5 points each on two top bowler bets so that whatever happens, we'll still be over 3 points in profit and that could yet be even better.  

First up, that man Jadeja, who leads the wicket-taking charts after two matches with six, with a ridiculous economy rate of just 3.21. Only one man so far this Series has bowled the full 20 overs so far, with Jadeja the next busiest with 19. So Jadeja (100/30) will at least give us a good run for our money by bowling his full quota. There's a chance he may not play at all if they decide he could do with a rest and not risk injury but that's no problem; you just get your money back.  

The man who's bowled all 20 is Adil Rashid, at 13/5. So it's perhaps no surprise he's our second pick; he's also the only England bowler to have three wickets so far.  Rashid's economy rate of 6.35 in the Series is almost a whole run higher than his carer average but then again, playing India away is as hard as it gets for an ODI bowler.  

Rashid is probably one of the more obvious bets you'll come across in these previews but that doesn't stop making it a good one.  

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...