James Buttler of the Cricket Badger Podcast looks ahead to the second Test and finds the best bets at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
Second Test at Trent Bridge to provide more competitive West Indies cricket
The first Test at Lord's wasn't too much to write home about. Over in just over two days, West Indies (0:22) meek and mild, and England in good form as they said goodbye to Jimmy Anderson. It wasn't a particularly great match for him to say goodbye in at Lords, but England won convincingly and the farewell scenes were lovely.
I'm still standing by my 3-0 series victory prediction from my first Test preview. It's how we find some betting value in the second Test because England are again particularly skinny on the outright markets.
If you like a very short price, then England to win, I think looks pretty decent, but they are 2/13. You're not going to get too rich on that, and of course gamble responsibly.
I think we'll see a slightly more competitive West Indies side in this second test. They didn't have much preparation ahead of Lords and they will have been stung by the nature of that defeat at the Home of Cricket. They will come back fighting, but I don't think they've got enough though to beat England.
There are plenty of good markets, of course, ahead of this Test match. Take England to have the highest opening partnership at 4/6, not a bad price.
As always, I'm going to put up Joe Root to be the leading England batter. It's 10/3 for Rooty. Zak Crawley only just beat him in the first Test and Root looked good. I think he could go big at Trent Bridge. And, if you go to Bet365 you can actually get Root boosted to 7/2 to land that market.
A hundred by any player in the first innings is even money. I think we'll see decent scores at Nottingham.
With England missing Jimmy Anderson, they're bringing Mark Wood straight back into the XI. Gus Atkinson took 12 wickets on his debut at Lords, but I'm going to go with Wood at 9/4 to be the top home bowler. When you go back to the 1970s and 1980s, West Indies were known for their pace bowling and always known for playing it well. But the nature of their pitches has changed a little bit and their new batters don't like it up them quite as much as they used to. So Mark Wood could get those wheels going and if he cranks it up, that 9/4 could look a really good shot on the Durham paceman.
But I'm playing England to win convincingly. Let's just hope it goes for a bit longer this time.
Good luck with all of your bets. Gamble responsibly, and I'll see you ahead of the third test match.
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