England vs West Indies Prediction: Romario can Shepherd Windies to a win

We are still in the group stages at the T20 World Cup and both teams here won their opening matches but in two very different ways. Jamie Pacheco previews England’s second match of the T20 World Cup against the West Indies, starting at 13:30 on Wednesday, February 11, and live on Sky Sports Main Event.   

Jamie thinks the West Indies are a pretty good price here at 15/8 and also likes that man Romario Shepherd to star for them with the ball again...

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England vs West Indies Preview & Team News:

England 

Given Harry Brook and alcohol have been talked about in the same sentence plenty of times in the past few weeks, here's another example of that: he owes Sam Curran a drink.  

Curran bowled a brilliant last over, almost flawless, to avoid what would have arguably been the biggest T20 World Cup upset of all time. England were there for the taking with six balls to go but Curran held his nerve brilliantly.  

Brook also owes Will Jacks a drink. His 39 off 18 with the bat made a huge difference to the outcome of the match and his 1/17 with the ball was important, too. It was a shame he only bowled two overs because had he been given another two, he may well have taken at least one more wicket and got us a dead-heat at a big price on the top bowler market.  

Phil Salt was out for just 1, so no joy on that one, either.  

For what it's worth, I think it was more a case of Nepal being excellent with the bat rather than England being poor. 

Luke Wood almost cost England the game in the 19th over with a load of wides and generally poor bowling, so they may consider Josh Tongue or Jamie Overton.   

West Indies  

The West Indies were pretty good against Scotland, setting a good total of 182 and defending it easily.  

After all these years, they've finally realised that Shimron Hetmyer is probably their best batsman in this format and have been playing him at three rather than five or six. The result? A brilliant 64 off 36 that put Scotland up against it.  

With the exception of Shai Hope, everyone boasted good strike rates rather than getting bogged down, as sometimes happens with them. They've got plenty of batting, so that's how they should be playing: aggressively rather than slowly building an innings.  

Romario Shepherd took five wickets and Jason Holder got three. 

Roston Chase was a surprise omission from the team, but given how well they went, it's unlikely they'll change much.   

Pitch and conditions 

We're at the Wankhede in Mumbai again.  

That England v Nepal game was a reminder of what a good wicket this is; England should really have got to 200 batting first. 

So big runs may be on the cards again. Given the batting power these two have, 200 on the board may not be enough.     

Match Winner odds. 

It's worth remembering England were 1/100 (!) ahead of that Nepal game, and it's certainly worth pointing out they touched 4/1 in-play after that disastrous 19th over from Wood.  

The West Indies are 15/8 here with England just 2/5.  

Given what we saw over the last few days, that's a good price on the West Indies. But the last matches' performances are not even half the story. The Windies are 18-16 up in the head-to-head against England in T20Is, and this sort of flat wicket is right up their street. Plenty of reasons to back them then.  

*You can bet on this match and check out all the live England vs West Indies Cricket Odds over on betfred.com

West Indies Top Bowler  

Romario Shepherd isn't a good price at 7/2 to be Windies top bowler just because he took five wickets last time out. We're not backing him just because he won last time out.  

 No, we're backing him because he's won this market 33% of the time in the last two years, yet his price of 7/2 suggests he's won it 22% of the time; that's value. And there have been plenty of times when he hasn't bowled his full quota or else it may have been an even better strike rate. It's a good wager.   

Jamie Pacheco Cricket P/L 2025: 

• Points Staked: 146 
• Points Returned: 151.7  
• Final P/L: +5.7pts  

Jamie Pacheco Cricket P/L 2026:   

• Points Staked: 18.25 
• Points Returned: 23.20 
• Current P/L: +4.95 

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...  

Top Price

Available 09:00 04/02 – 05:30 07/02. Top Price/Joint Top Price all teams to win T20 WC with selected bookmakers using Oddschecker for comparison. Max Stakes Vary. Prices may fluctuate. T&Cs Apply.

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