England vs Bangladesh Betting Tips & Predictions | T20 World Cup 2021

England Team News

It’s virtually impossible to think of how England could have gotten off to a better start. They beat the defending champions comprehensively after bowling them out for a pathetic 55. All five bowlers took wickets.

Adil Rashid took 4-2 but ‘the judges’ decided it was Moeen Ali who deserved to be MOM after taking two early wickets. Rashid dismissed big guns Andre Rusell and Kieron Pollard among his victims but by then most of the hard work had been done.

The only slightly strange thing about their performance was that they lost four wickets in chasing such a low total. But that won’t matter one bit in the grand scheme of things. Eoin Morgan proved that he may be out of form with the bat but (just) about deserves his place in the side as captain.

His field placements and bowling changes were exceptional.

Bangladesh Team News

Bangladesh could have gotten off to an excellent start but lost their nerve when they most needed it. They posted a strong total against Sri Lanka after fine knocks from Mohammad Naim (62 off 52) and Mushfiqur Rahim, who hit 57 off 37.

Earlier in the tournament they held Rahim back to six or seven but he should be batting four, or at the worst, five. They then dismissed dangerman Kusal Perera for just 1 and had Sri Lanka three down for not that many.

But two good batting performances from the Lankans and some poor fielding cost Bangladesh and they were left wondering what might have been. Fielding isn’t something you can improve on overnight so we’ll have to wait and see how they get on with that in this game.

They have world-class players in Rahim, fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman and all-rounder Shakib Al-Hasan.

But you get the feeling all three have to be good on the day for them to beat the bigger teams.

Venue & conditions

The first thing you should know is that prior to the WC games played at Abu Dhabi, there was a 52% win rate for teams batting first. The second is that in all three matches played here across two qualifiers and South Africa v Australia on Saturday, the chaser won. So there’s no clear advantage to batting first or second.

What’s perhaps even more relevant is that this is an afternoon game so dew won’t be a factor.

Given Bangladesh got stung in a chase on Sunday and that England prefer to chase in general, the captain winning the toss will want to bowl first, despite the lack of dew.

Par score? Maybe 160.

Here’s everything you need to know about the stadium at Abu Dhabi, by the way.

England vs Bangladesh Winner Prediction

Recommended Bet: England to win @ 1.27 with Purewin

Time for our match prediction. As explained in our ultimate T20 betting guide, we generally look for one of the following reasons to back an outsider. And it’s worth remembering that at odds of 3.85, Bangladesh are proper outsiders, by the way.

Does the outsider have a strong head to head record? No, because they’ve never played each other.

Is one team missing lots of players? No, England are missing Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer but everyone else is there.

Are the outsiders in better form? No, they’re fresh from losing to Scotland and Sri Lanka, two sides they should probably be beating.

Is there a toss bias that can help Bangladesh? No, we don’t know what’s best to do at Abu Dhabi.

In the absence of any reason to go with Bangladesh, we have to go with the favourites, who also just happen to be the Number 1 ranked side in the world.

And here’s our Pure Win review, by the way. I’ll tell you why it’s one of our recommended betting sites with plenty to like about it.

Today’s England vs Bangladesh Hot Bet

Recommended Bet: Shakib Al-Hasan to be Bangladesh top bowler @ 4.0 with Betway

Shakib Al-Hasan is, if anything, underrated. He’d walk into any side in the world and the only reason he’s not talked about in the same breath as a Ben Stokes or Andre Rusell is that he plays for an ‘unfashionable’ country.

The all-rounder has scored 118 runs in four knocks. But it’s his bowling we’re interested in.

He’s taken 11 wickets in four games so is currently the highest wicket-taker in the World Cup. But 11 in four is top class.

It’s worth remembering however that he’s played four games, while the non-qualifiers have only played one (or none).

More to the point, his 11 wickets are almost twice as many as the next best: Mustafizur Rahman, who has six. Mahedi Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin each have five.

What’s strange is that Rahman is a shorter price than Shakib. He shouldn’t be. Shakib is the class act and 4.0 is more than good enough to tempt us.

England vs Bangladesh fun statistics

Let’s round things off with some quick stats ahead of the game.

• Our man Shakib is the Number 2 ranked T20 all-rounder in T20Is. Only Mohammad Nabi is ahead of him.
• Shakib is also ranked Number 9 just as a bowler.
• Jos Buttler has 14 fifties in T20Is from just 83 innings, but no centuries.
• Chris Jordan is England’s top wicket taker ever in T20Is with 74 in 66 games.
• Liam Livingstoe has an insane strike rate of 165 from his nine games for England.