England women v India women first T20 predictions and free cricket betting tips

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for England women v India women in Friday's first T20 international at Chester-le-Street.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Cricket, 7pm Friday

Best bet

S Mandhana top India runscorer
1pt 12-5 bet365

First T20 preview

England are clear favourites to beat India in the women's T20 at Chester-le-Street on Saturday night – despite losing to them recently and now boasting a weaker team.

This is a rematch of the Commonwealth Games semi-final at Edgbaston five weeks ago, a match India won by four runs.

Heather Knight, missing then and still out, is joined on the absentee list by her understudy as captain, Nat Sciver, plus evergreen seamer Katherine Brunt.

A lot of young talents such as Alice Capsey, Freya Kemp and Issy Wong are being backed to deliver, but England don't look much in the way of value.

India are relying on their senior batting stars, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, especially if Jemimah Rodrigues, who finished the Commonwealths in style, scoring 44 against England and a classy 33 in the final defeat by Australia, hasn't recovered from a wrist injury.

Top-bat honours for India looks between those three and Mandhana, her country's top scorer at the Commonwealths, gets the nod.

Sign up to emails from Racing Post Sport and get all the latest news and tips

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport