India v England First T20I: Expert Predictions & Analysis

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India v England First T20I: Expert Predictions & Analysis

India v England predictions: 

When: Wednesday 22 January, 7:00 pm IST

Where: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Watch: Star Sports, Hotstar

Best Odds: India 1.61, England 2.30

The most recent commitments of the India and England men’s national cricket teams were away Test series in Australia and New Zealand, and they’ll be making a sharp pivot into the game’s shortest international format. 

With less than one month out until the ICC Champions Trophy in the 50-over format, the two sides will be filling BCCI and state association coffers with five must-see T20Is before the proper preparation for the Champions Trophy begins with three ODIs in February.

England are entering a new era after Brendon McCullum took on the white ball team role on a full-time basis and he’ll therefore be imposing his seemingly care-free and gung-ho attitude on the T20I setup, making for a fascinating approach to this series. 

It all begins at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata with India as warm favourites, and after a successful 2024 of cricket betting previews we’ll be scouring the markets on some of our favourite cricket betting sites over coming weeks to bring you our India v England T20I best bets. 

The Numbers That Matter

  • India won 25 of their last 27 T20Is across the world
  • Eden Gardens was the third fastest-scoring IPL 2024 venue (9.78rpo)
  • Three of the four 2021/22 T20Is in Kolkata were won by batting first
  • India won their last home series to England 3-2 (2021)

SKY just went through his worst year ever

It says a lot about the high ceiling of Suryakumar Yadav’s talents that he could still come out of his poorest T20I calendar year with an average of 26, but it’s still well short of the high-40s he produced in the two preceding years. 

It plummeted late in the year with three consecutive scores of 21 or fewer runs in an underwhelming tour of South Africa. 

Cricket bookmakers have given him an over/under mark of 24.5 runs for this match, which he cleared in 47% of his 17 T20I innings last year, so it seems a reasonably fair threshold.

But in addition to an average of less than 15 against England-quick Jofra Archer, Suryakumar Yadav has had ongoing struggles at Eden Gardens in the IPL.

Suryakumar cleared 25+ runs in only four of his 19 IPL innings in Kolkata, the most recent of which was a score of 11 against KKR this year. 

Prediction: Tip 1 - Suryakumar Yadav under 24.5 runs - 1.83 @ 22Bet Sports

England’s captain has a happy history in Kolkata

On the other hand, someone with consistent and more recent success at Eden Gardens is 34-year-old Jos Buttler. 

Buttler registered in 2024 his third-best T20I batting average in a calendar year (42.00) whilst going past the 24.5 run mark set by Indian betting sites in seven of his 13 T20I innings as well as a 23* in a very small run chase against Oman at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

That’s in line with Buttler’s overall T20I average of 42.60 in India - albeit courtesy of five not-outs from 15 innings - but even with that in mind, he still got past 25+ runs in the majority (eight) of those starts. 

The Englishman has made five IPL appearances at Eden Gardens and had a significant impact on all but one occasion. 

His five IPL scores at Eden Gardens read as follows: 41 (2016), 39 (2018), 89 (2022), 0 (2023) and 107* (2024).

He also has some favourable head-to-head matchups in this series, averaging 34 against Mohammed Shami in all T20s as well as 28.50 vs Varun Chakravarthy and 47 against Arshdeep Singh, whilst neither Ravi Bishnoi (0-15) nor Harshit Rana (0-25) have dismissed him.

Prediction: Jos Buttler over 24.5 runs - 1.83 @ 22Bet Sports

KKR’s very own to shine on ‘home’ soil

Varun Chakravarthy made an impressive but ultimately unsuccessful tilt for the ICC Champions Trophy squad by taking an impressive 18 wickets for Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, which was the equal-second most behind Arshdeep Singh’s 20  wickets. 

Albeit in a different format, it means that Chakravarthy comes into this series in pristine white-ball form and ready to build upon his outstanding tour of South Africa, in which he took 2+ wickets in all four matches for a series-best total of 12 wickets at an average of just 11.50.

He’ll know better than perhaps any other bowler in this team how to negotiate the Eden Gardens pitch as a Kolkata Knight Riders bowler of six seasons.

He closed out his 2024 campaign by picking up 2+ scalps in three of his last five home games of the IPL season, meaning Chakravarthy grabbed multiple wickets in 11 of his last 13 T20Is for India or KKR. 

Chakravarthy, therefore, presents outstanding value at better than even money with Indian cricket bookmakers to carry his excellent two-format form forward. 

Prediction: Varun Chakravarthy 2+ wickets - 2.20 @ 22Bet Sports

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