Australia begins their T20 World Cup campaign on Thursday morning as they take on Oman at Kensington Oval! The Aussies are the overwhelming favourites to kick their campiagn off with a resounding win, and are simply unbackable at their H2H price. Don't worry, Jack Tobin has found some value for the clash, and he provides his full betting preview below. Good luck to everyone following!
2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Preview & Betting Tips
Australia vs Oman
Barbados, Thursday 6th June, 10:30am AEST
Australia
Predicted XI: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tim David, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Mitch Marsh leads Australia's quest to hold all three ICC Men’s trophies, with their first matchup against Oman in Barbados. The Australian camp has prioritised rest for in the lead up to the tournament, with the players who featured in the IPL not taking part in either of the warm up games against Namibia and the West Indies.
Australia’s biggest question at selection will be whether to play a second spinner in Ashton Agar, over one of Pat Cummins or Josh Hazlewood. Given how Australia has operated in tournaments in the past, expect them to be pretty safe at selection early before making some tweaks at the later stage of the group matches.
Australia annihilated Namibia in their first warm up game, then lost to the West Indies by 35 runs, however very little can be taken from these matches given the Aussies only had nine players - with members of the coaching staff filling in as sub fielders.
Australia have won five of their last six T20 Internationals, with a 2-1 series win over the West Indies at home, and a 3-0 away against New Zealand. Although Australia haven’t played a T20I since February, they’ve had a large portion of their squad playing big roles in the IPL.
Travis Head is coming off a red hot IPL campaign, scoring 567 runs at an average of 40.50 with a strike rate of 191.55, scoring the fourth most runs of any player. Marcus Stoinis scored 388 runs at a strike rate of 147.52, while Pat Cummins was the ninth highest wicket taker with 18 wickets. After a slow start to his campaign, Mitchell Starc delivered when it mattered most, producing performances of 3/34 and 2/14 in the playoffs to lead KKR to the title.
Oman
Predicted XI: Kashyap Prajapati, Naseem Khushi, Aqib Ilyas, Zeeshan Maqsood, Khalid Kail, Ayaan Khan, Mohammad Nadeem, Mehran Khan, Shakeel Ahmad, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan
Oman began their campaign with a heartbreaking loss in Barbados against Namibia on Monday morning. Defending a well under par 109, Oman seamer Mehran Khan took 2/4 off the final over to send the game into a super over, with keeper Naseem Khushi missing a run out off the final ball that would have given Oman a remarkable victory.
Oman were left to rue their decision to not give Mehran Khan the ball in the super over, as opener Bilal Khan conceded 21 off the super over, a target Namibia comfortably defended.
Oman’s top three struggled against Namibian left-armer Ruben Trumpelmann, with Kashyap Prajapati and Aqib Ilyas dismissed LBW for golden ducks in the opening two balls of the match in near identical fashion. Naseem Khushi was dismissed for 6 in the third over to leave Oman reeling at 3/10. Expect Mitchell Starc to be targeting the stumps early in this clash, which will put the Oman top order under some serious pressure.
Mehran Khan was the stand out for Oman with the ball taking 3/7, getting plenty out of the pitch in Barbados with his change ups. Expect Mehran Khan to be the biggest threat to Australia, and he will likely be given the ball earlier in the innings after his standout performance.
Match Prediction
This will be the first time Australia and Oman will play against each other in an international fixture, and it looms as a major mismatch. Conditions will be dry and suited to spin bowlers at Kensington Oval, and Australia showed their ability to be successful in these kinds of conditions at last year’s ODI World Cup in India. Australia plays England in their second group game at the same venue, so expect the Aussies to put their best foot forward and get some much needed form in Caribbean conditions.
As expected, there’s no value in the head to head or most sixes markets, so we'll be playing into the prop markets for our best bet in this clash.
Hard to go past Travis Head being the leading run scorer in this fixture, if Oman bat first it will likely be a small chase that Head will get the best look at. Head has been in hot in white ball cricket over the last eighteen months, and in his last seven T20I matches, Head has scored 287 runs at an average of 41, with no scores below 24 in that seven game span.
Travis Head Top Australian Run Scorer
$4 (1 Unit)
