England vs India Prediction: Jacks of all trades worth an interest at 8/1

It has been quite the few days for Engish cricket but we leave the red ball behind for a short burst. Jamie Pacheco previews England's first white-ball game of the summer as India come to town, the match taking place at Chester-Le-Street and starting at 17:30 on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports.   

Jamie is keeping stakes sensible as he picks 8/1 and 14/5 shots as we take in his England vs India Predictions tonight...

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England  

Ben Stokes has dominated the headlines over the past few days as you'd expect but the quick turnaround in international cricket means England won't have too much time to be worrying about that. Besides, Stokes hadn't played a T20I for almost four years, so it's unlikely he would have featured here anyway.  

Instead, they stick with Sam Curran and Will Jacks in those number 6 and 7 spots, both also very capable with the ball, so they have good balance here. Harry Brook seems to have decided he wants to bat at three in this format; Phil Salt and Jos Buttler will open the batting again.  

Jofra Archer is unlikely to play here after back-to-back Test matches, so the reliable Luke Wood could get a game. As ever, Adil Rashid is included as the main spin threat.  

India 

India have brought Shreyas Iyer back from international exile but that's only half the story. 

They've also made him captain after Sky Yadav seemed to lose all form over the past year or so. We might not see Sky again in the India blue. But things didn't go well for Iyer over in Ireland, losing the Series 2-0.  

Like England, they have plenty of all-rounders with Axar Patel, Shivam Dube and the slightly more unknown Suryansh Shedge, who featured for the Punjab Kings in the IPL this season.  

We will however have to wait and see when we get to witness teenage prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi play here or only later in the Series. He was left out against Ireland with Sanju Samson and Abishek Sharma opening, but you'd think that he's not just here for the sightseeing, so he may well play, especially after that Series defeat. There's no Jasprit Bumrah.  

So we'll leave this market alone and focus instead on a couple of other ones.  

Pitch and conditions. 

Chester-Le-Street is one of those grounds where we never quite know what we're going to get. Which may mean we get one of those 150-160 totals as par.  

There may be some drizzle around but probably not enough for there to be a loss of overs.  

Match Winner odds 

It's 10/11 the pair and all things considered, that seems about right.  

India have a new skipper, are fresh from losing 2-0 and are missing a couple of important players, most notably Bumrah. Then again, they're the World Champions, so they always deserve respect.  

As for England, the batting looks good, and so do the spin options, but the fast bowling, not so much. At least the pacers such as Luke Wood and Sonny Baker should know the conditions here well from the County game.  

*For all the latest and live England vs India 1st T20I Odds then head over to betfred.com 

Top England Bowler  

This is one of those that could go wrong. Will Jacks may only be given one or two overs, if at all, if conditions don't suit his bowling and that's unlikely to provide us with the two wickets we'll probably need to win here.  

But if that's the downside, there's an upside. He was probably England's best bowler at the last World Cup and though he didn't always bowl that much in the IPL, he's likely to be preferred to Jacob Bethell if they want some overs of spin to complement Rashid.  

But of course, the main reason for this selection is price. A two-or-three-way dead heat would provide us with a good winner, and for that reason, he's worth a bet for small stakes.  

Top India Batsman  

Again, we're keeping stakes sensible until we have a better idea of who is in form and where exactly everyone will bat but here's what we do know. Abishek Sharma is likely to play here and then it should be a straight choice between the wunderkind and Samson. Of course, if Sharma plays, he opens. 

This is a man who isn't going to die wondering, and even five or six overs of him could see him have 50 next to his name.  He scored 49 in the first game against Ireland and could go well here again.  

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