Attention turns to the T20 format on Friday, as England and the West Indies renew hostilities – read Richard Mann's preview here.
Cricket betting tips: England v West Indies
No recommended bets
It’s T20Is next for the West Indies as their white-ball tour of England switches formats in Durham on Friday, 6.30pm, UK time.
The tourists were whitewashed in the ODI series, though they did show more fight with the bat in the second and third games, and might fancy they should’ve won in Cardiff.
T20 looks to be their strongest format, and Andre Russell and Jason Holder return to their squad now, while IPL winner Romario Shepherd should also feature at some stage.
There is power aplenty in that batting line-up, with Russell usually the one to put the finishing touches to the innings after the likes of Shai Hope and Johnson Charles have done the early damage.
Having not expected a great deal from the West Indies in the ODI series, I do think we’ll see a much more competitive series in this format, for all England ought to once again prove the stronger team.
England won a T20I series played between these two sides in the Caribbean before Christmas, but the West Indies won the fourth match and were well placed on 44-0 from five overs before the series finale was eventually washed out.
Interestingly, the match the West Indies did win saw them chase down 219 in 19 overs, while they also scored 182 earlier in the series.
And that might be something to consider here. While not the easiest to catch right, this West Indies T20I team does have big runs in them given the right conditions.
England are just the same, with the likes of ben Duckett, Jos Buttler and Harry Brook the big names in their top six.
The concern for Friday is the weather forecast for Durham which poor, even worse on Thursday, and this is a ground where runscoring can be tricky if there is rain in the air and cloud cover.
I’ll hold fire with any runs bets for now, but we might revisit this one going forward.
For now, it’s hard to make a case for anything with a great deal of confidence until we have a better idea of the weather and the pitch in Durham.
No bet is the advice at this stage.
Preview published at 1610 BST on 04/06/25
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