For the past few weeks, cricket fans have been captivated by contests involving a red ball. India and Australia have been going at it, South Africa and the West Indies have just started, and New Zealand just finished playing a fantastic series against England.
This week, however, the white ball will return. England is touring Bangladesh and begins a three-match ODI series on Wednesday, sending an entirely different squad to the subcontinent from the one that has just been playing in New Zealand. We look at all the odds for this tour and break down the best bets to make on the first ODI with odds from bookmaker William Hill.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 28th, 10:00 A.M. (GMT)
Looking at the outright winner odds for the first match of this tour, it’s clear that bookmaker William Hill has this as a reasonably tight match. England is ahead with odds of 1.53 to win the first ODI. Bangladesh is not far behind with their winner odds at 2.50.
Interestingly, England only finished playing a Test series a few hours ago against New Zealand. That match will go down in history as one of the best Test matches ever played with New Zealand winning by the finest of margins—one run. However, none of the players present in this match will be fronting up against Bangladesh. Such is the nature of the modern game that nations like England can afford to send entirely separate squads to two different parts of the world at the same time.
Heading into this series, both teams are in contrasting form. England has lost their last two series over the past few months, getting swept by Australia soon after the T20 World Cup 2022 and falling 2-1 to South Africa in a high scoring series. Bangladesh, on the other hand, has been in fantastic white ball form. They most recently defeated big brother India 2-1, while last year they also gained series wins over South Africa, the West Indies and Afghanistan.
England is the reigning world champion in both T20 and ODI cricket however, so the squad knows how to win in this format. The question is whether or not they’ll be able to put their best foot forward having not been together as a team for very long and in the Bangladeshi conditions. We expect that Bangladesh will be a handful on spin-friendly pitches and could well grab a win in the first ODI.
Big picture, England will likely warm up and win the ODI series 2-1, but with healthy odds of 2.50 in the first ODI, backing Bangladesh is the best bet to make here in the series opener.
