England v India predictions & free cricket betting tips: Rely on Root mastery

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for England v India in Tuesday's first ODI at The Oval.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Cricket & Main Event, 1pm Tuesday

Best bets

Joe Root to score a fifty
2pts 15-8 Hills

England to hit more sixes
2pts 4-5 Betfred, Betfair, Paddy Power

Team news

England
Test stars Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Ben Stokes return to the one-day squad. Brydon Carse and Craig Overton are among the pace-bowling options for new captain Jos Buttler.

India
Veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan, who averages 110.75 in five ODI appearances at The Oval, has joined the squad.

Match preview

England face India in a third different format in the space of a week and their three-match one-day series is due to start on a scorching Tuesday afternoon at The Oval.

India won last week's Twenty20 series 2-1 after a couple of limp batting displays from England in the first two games but the tourists may not be thrilled to see Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Ben Stokes swaggering into the England camp for the 50-over series.

Those three were among the main architects of England's stunning start to their Test summer, with three victories over New Zealand followed by an astonishing chase of 377 to win the rescheduled fifth Test of the 2021 series against India.

Bairstow, whose last five Test scores at number five were 136, 162, 71 not out, 106 and 114 not out, will return to the top of the order in the ODI side and Root should be trusted to transfer his dazzling Test form to the white-ball arena.

The former Test captain has effectively been in ODI mode throughout the red-ball contests against New Zealand and India and he is a tempting price to score a half-century at The Oval.

His ability to pick gaps in the field and his increasingly inventive strokeplay make him a hard man to tie down whatever the format and his unbeaten 142 in the fourth innings of the Edgbaston win over India was a batting masterpiece.

Root has an excellent one-day record at The Oval, scoring at least 45 in eight of his ten innings at the south-London venue, and he averages 56 in 18 ODIs against India.

These teams are well-matched in the 50-over format and over the past decade India just shade the head-to-head record 12-10.

Last March's series in India ended 2-1 to the hosts, who won the decider by just seven runs, and another tight encounter looks likely.

One area in which England may hold the edge is six-hitting, with Bairstow, Stokes, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali all capable of big-hitting fireworks.

England smashed their own ODI records last month, hitting 26 sixes in a total of 498-4 against the Netherlands. India's bowling unit is far superior to the Dutch attack but Buttler's men are unlikely to temper their aggressive approach with the bat.

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