Richard Mann previews the final T20I between England and India on Saturday afternoon, when Sam Curran is backed for big things.
Cricket tips: England v India T20I
2pts Sam Curran over 29.5 player performance points at 5/6 (bet365)
Southampton hosts the final T20I between England and India on Saturday (14:30), with the tourists having only pride left to play for having already lost the series following their third straight loss in Bristol on Thursday night.
India have looked anything but T20 world champions thus far, their top order continually proving ill-equipped to handle England’s pace attack and short-ball tactics. India’s own bowling, particularly in the spin department, has been poor.
England will go off favourites for the series finale, and current odds of 4/5 might not be short enough for some. That said, we are dealing with the world champions here, so a return to their best from India is hard to completely rule out.
The main charge to be laid at India is that so far, since the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in this format, their success has been achieved at home on small grounds and some awfully flat pitches.
The likes of Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will be desperate to prove that is not the case, though the prospect of England resting pacers Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue might be their best hope.
It will be interesting to see what happens in terms in team news and starting XIs, but for now, I’m happy to leave the India players alone in the side markets.
So dominant have England been, the performances of SAM CURRAN have gone under the radar, but the Surrey man is doing himself no harm ahead of the upcoming Test series with Pakistan as England seek a permanent replacement for Ben Stokes.
Curran has only been required with the bat twice in the series so far, with the first T20I rained off at the halfway mark in Durham, and his unbeaten 41 in Nottingham was a brilliant hand that came from just 24 balls.
Throw his bowling into the mix, and Curran can be very happy with his work, starting 1-25 in Durham, and following up with 3-33 and then 0-24 from his four overs in Bristol. England didn’t need a fifth bowler in Nottingham, so Curran enjoyed a nice day off there.
However, he is clearly in good shape right now, and his PLAYER PERFORMANCE LINE of 29.5 with bet365 looks an overs bet given Curran has also bagged a couple of catches in the series as well.
For those without bet365 accounts, the 15/8 for Curran to take two wickets or more in the match with betway is worth a second look.
Posted at 16:10 BST on 10/07/26
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