What Happens Next? Ante-post betting column

Cricket

Pakistan emerged as surprise winners of the Champions Trophy on Sunday but will they be able to repeat the trick at the next global 50-over tournament, the 2019 World Cup?

The bookies suggest it’s unlikely with odds of 14/1 still available about a team which has been notoriously mercurial over the years.

At least the bulk of their winning side will still be around, most notably the bowling attack which performed so well. They may well, however, have to make changes to the middle order with Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik both heading towards their late 30s.

The format of the event in two years’ time is for 10 teams to play in one big round-robin group with the top four progressing to the semi-finals.

That gives the favourites more wriggle room for error than in the Champions Trophy with upset wins less likely to result in progress to the knockout phase.

With this in mind, England, who will again host the tournament, look too big at 11/2 (bwin) at this stage.

Rewind three weeks and they were going off favourites for the Champions Trophy.

They played excellent cricket until the semi-finals where Pakistan proved way too good on the day.

That’s the risk with this England team – their aggressive style of play means they will fall short in one-off games every now and again.

With a young, improving line-up – and plenty of strength in depth - there seems little reason to believe they won’t turn up in 2019 among the favourites and if they keep playing the brand of cricket they have been since the last World Cup then there’s every chance they will start as jollies on home soil.

The format should suit. While there’s still plenty of water to go under the bridge, I find it difficult not to imagine them arriving at the event not expected to finish in the top four of the group stage.

From there, it’s just two wins from glory – and it’s just a case of hoping that one of the bad days does not come in July 2019.

I feel the 11/2 won’t be around for the start the tournament so those who like to place a long-term bet should take note. (Andy Schooler)

Click here to back England with Sky Bet

Golf

The US Open was a strange affair all told, stripped of its biggest guns over the weekend and played around a course that yielded a winning score of -16.

Whether or not you were a fan of the season’s traditionally toughest tournament being torn to shreds, it yielded an excellent winner in Brooks Koepka and he never really looked in much danger over the closing nine holes as he surged into an unassailable lead.

He is a best price now of 33/1 for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale but it would be hard to imagine him getting such favourable circumstances again with no Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy or Jason Day around to harass him over the weekend, while Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia were never a factor for the final 36 holes either at Erin Hills.

I have already backed Tommy Fleetwood for next month’s event on the Southport coast and the Englishman did very little to put me off his chance as he hung tough on the final day in Wisconsin. Local advantage will be big for the Englishman - this is his home course - and the form he has shown already in 2017 should give him the belief he has what it takes to contend regularly in the biggest events.

One player who should be avoided on balance is Rickie Fowler after another disappointing display on the final day of a major.

Koepka was head and shoulders above his rivals as it turned out but Fowler’s inability to apply any sort of pressure was worrying as his choice to stick with a rigid game-plan when clearly needing to be more aggressive as the leader started to turn the screw and ease clear.

The trendy thing these days is to take the positives from any setback and move on but Fowler and coach Butch Harmon need to take a long look at what is going wrong as he continues to add to a growing back-catalogue of near-misses.

He will be a popular pick again for Birkdale but fails to represent any value in that 20/1 to 25/1 region and I will be quite happy to let him go unbacked this time. (David John)

Click here for Sky Bet's latest Open Championship odds