mvaughan

I can't see Sri Lanka finding a way back into this Test series so it's not unreasonable for plenty of England cricket fans to already be thinking about the India series later on in the summer. An obvious area of concern ahead of that is the form of Andrew Strauss. Or more specifically, his recent trend of being pinned LBW against left-armers. If he's getting out that way to Chanaka Welegadara, we can almost picture Zaheer Khan back in India watching on TV licking his lips and setting a himself a few personal targets in terms of how many times he's going to get the England captain out.

Then there's Duncan Fletcher. The workaholic India coach for whom attention to detail is the be-all-and-end-all, as I can testify. He'll be making notes of Strauss' recent vulnerability to left-armers coming round the wicket and will also be plotting his downfall, especially since he knows the Middlesex man's technique inside out. In truth, it's not a recent thing with Strauss. More a case of his opponents not having worked it out until now and the problem seems to be that against left-handers he loses track of where his off-stump is and isn't sure what to play it and what to leave. As a opening batsman, that signals trouble. But Strauss is hardly work-shy himself and he'll have spent the last week or so in the nets with Andy Flower making sure it doesn't happen again at the Rose Bowl. If anything, it could result in him actually playing at a delivery he doesn't need to and getting out that way. Alastair Cook hasn't looked vulnerable to LBW in recent times so all things considered, its' worth backing "caught" in the England first dismissal method market at around 1.7. It's the favourite I know but there are good reasons to think we'll collect on it.

The fact I have so much trouble trying to pick someone in the Top England First innings batsman market is good news for England fans: it means a case can be made for most of them because they're in form. That said, I'm going to leave Kevin Pietersen alone and the same goes for Strauss, simply because he hasn't made a big score yet. Ian Bell is arguably the best value at 6.0 because he's made it look so easy over the past few weeks but we have to be aware of the fact he may come in with England already having big runs on the board. So a straight choice it is between Cook and Jonathan Trott and I'm going to go with the latter solely because there may be some early movement off the pitch which could make bating tricky at the start. Trott it is.

Recommended bets:
Back "caught" in the England First Dismissal market @ 1.7
Back Jonathan Trott to top score for England in the first innings @ 4.6

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