England v Ireland: First ODI cricket preview, analysis, predictions & free tips

Free tips, best bets and analysis for the England v Ireland first ODI cricket at the Ageas Bowl starting on Friday.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Cricket, 2pm Thursday

Best bets

Jonny Bairstow top England runscorer
2pts 3-1 Betfair, Paddy Power, Sky Bet
Harry Tector top Ireland runscorer
1pt 7-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Match preview

England battle with Ireland in a three-match one-day international series, all of which will take place at Southampton's Ageas Bowl, and Eoin Morgan's men are heavy favourites to win the opening contest.

With England forced to maintain separate Test and white-ball squads, the hosts are without several members of last summer's successful World Cup squad.

Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood were all in the squad for the three-match Test series against the West Indies and will miss out on this series.

However, such is England's strength in depth that they still boast a strong one-day unit and are just 1-9 to start the series with a victory with Ireland 6-1 for a Southampton success.

While Morgan is missing many of his key players, he can still call on Jason Roy, Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow who should be able to do enough to seal a series win.

Bairstow, in particular, has a point to prove after being dropped from the Test team and, with motivation no issue for the Yorkshireman, he should be backed to lead the way with the bat.

The 30-year-old struck 532 runs at the World Cup, a record only bettered for England by the absent Root, and boasts a fine one-day average of 47.14.

Bairstow fired 127 off 88 balls in an intra-squad warm-up and can put Ireland's bowlers to the sword at a ground where he has struck ODI scores of 141 not out, 51 and 45 from three appearances.

Ireland will look to skipper Andy Balbirnie and reliable Paul Stirling for runs but they could be outgunned by 20-year-old Dubliner Harry Tector who is primed to make his ODI debut.

Tector scored 29 not out, 37 and 31 in March's T20 series against Afghanistan and picked up where he left off by scoring 54 in an intra-squad contest last week and 55 against the England Lions at the Ageas Bowl.

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