Ireland vs England Prediction: Campher and Cox good prices at 6/1 in 1st IT20

Jamie Pacheco previews the first IT20 between Ireland and England in Malahide, start time 13:30, live on TNT Sports. With the weather forecast extremely good over there - for a change - a full game is expected.  

Jamie has two 6/1 shots here to keep you interested throughout as he takes us through the team news, his best bets and Ireland vs England Predictions...

*You can check out the Cricket Odds from all of our Cricket Betting markets over on betfred.com

There are some familiar names in this Ireland side, starting with skipper Paul Stirling, who has no shortage of county and international experience.  

There are also returns to the squad for Gareth Delany, Craig Young and Curtis Campher, the latter arguably Ireland's most important player of all given he's very much a double threat, who takes plenty of wickets and bats in the Top 5.  

But both Josh Little and Mark Adair are absent with injury. Ireland are competitive when all their big guns are available but given they have a small pool of players to choose from, a couple of absentees can make a big difference.  

England 

Sunday's big decider against South Africa was washed out so that Series ended 1-1, a slightly unsatisfactory ending to proceedings.   

Jacob Bethell has somehow been handed the captaincy for this Series ahead of the likes of Phil Salt, Tom Banton or Sam Curran. The England powers-that-be clearly love this guy.  

There are some absences here with the likes of Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook and Jofra Archer given some time off but it's a pretty strong squad, nonetheless. 

As ever with this England side, there are at least seven decent bowling options so plenty for skip Bethell to work with.

Pitch and conditions.

We're at Malahide in Dublin for this one. When we're in this part of the world, the first question is always: what's the weather like?  

The forecast is surprisingly good with no rain expected at all during the match, a nice change.  

India were here a couple of years ago and posted a big 185, Ireland falling 33 runs short of that.    

In 2022 they were even better with the bat, getting to 225. Ireland almost chased that, falling just four runs short so as decent wicket and small boundaries mean the potential for big runs is on the cards.   

Match Winner odds 

England are 1/14, implied probability of 93.3%. Geez, that's short enough.  

It's a real shame that Little and Young aren't available because if they were, the hosts could have had a decent chance to upset the odds here provided a few things went their way. But as we said to begin with, those are two big casualties in a side who can't afford to be without their best players.  

I'd be surprised if those odds of 13/2 on Ireland don't contract during the game, but best leave them alone.  

*For all the latest and live Ireland vs England Odds then head over to betfred.com 

Ireland Top Batsman  

The odds-compilers are taking some serious chances with a quote of 6/1 on Curtis Campher. Good for us.  

Not only has he played a lot of T20 cricket at age 26- 61 T20Is and exactly 100 matches in the format overall – but he boasts decent numbers and a good strike rate, He also often saves his best performances for the biggest stages and we'd expect him to bat at three, four or five, so he ticks plenty of boxes for a 6/1 chance. 

England Top Batsman  

At exactly the same price, you can back Jordan Cox to top score for England. Team news is a bit thin on the ground at the time of writing but they can't keep on picking Cox in the squad band and then never giving him a chance to impress.  

He was in brilliant form in The Hundred, elected the Player of the Series after topping the runscoring charts: in his last seven games he got 44, 86, 56, 58, 24, 47 and 40, brilliant numbers.  

If he plays here, he bats in the Top 4 and gives you a good run for your money; if he doesn't play, you get your money back.