Cricket Betting – Morgan Worthy of Support in T20s

Pakistan‘s decision to omit the three players being questioned in connection with the spot fixing scandal, captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, is threatening to overshadow England‘s axing of Kevin Pietersen for the T20 and one-day series. Indeed, there is that much going behind the scenes that it’s easy to forget there is actually a couple of limited overs series to play before Pakistan depart these shores.

There’s no doubt that it is the tourists who will have been most weakened by the withdrawls, voluntary or otherwise, and slightly surprising therefore that bet365 view a drawn series (1-1) as the likely outcome (6/5). I can’t imagine that morale is exactly sky-high in the Pakistan camp at the moment. There will be on to their third captain of the tour when they take to the field for the first T20 in Cardiff and come into the game on the back of their worst-ever defeat in test cricket. Their bowling has been the only bright spot so far on an otherwise humbling tour and now two of their three best bowlers will be missing. I just can’t see where they are going to get enough runs to trouble England, who have selected a pretty much tried and trusted squad with one or two exciting additions. Let’s not forget, England were only crowned the T20 champions in the spring and have beaten the Australians in a one-day series since their heroics in the Caribbean. For the T20s, only Kevin Pietersen, James Tredwell, Ajmal Shahzad and Michael Lumb are missing from their World Cup-winning squad which will be led again by Paul Collingwood. Craig Kieswetter will again play the role of pinch-hitter at the top of the order but will hand over wicket-keeping duties to Surrey‘s Steve Davies, who has been in tremendous run-scoring form in one-day games for his county this summer. Kieswetter is 4/1 with Ladbrokes to be England’s top scorer in the first T20, with Davies quoted at 5/1 by bet365. The pick, the innovative Eoin Morgan, is 9/2 with Paddy Power. Pakistan’s top scorer betting is headed by brothers Kamran Akmal (a general 4/1) and Umar Akmal (9/2 with Paddy Power and William Hill are offering odds of 5/4 that the Pakistani bowlers don’t bowl a single no-ball in Cardiff – now that would be ironic!

• Eoin Morgan to be England top scorer in first T20 @ 9/2 with Paddy Power