Australia will be hunting their third ICC Champions Trophy as they travel to England for the 2017 edition starting June 1st. The top eight teams in ODI cricket have been split into two groups for the round robin section of the tournament before the top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage.
In Group A along with Australia are England, New Zealand and the surprise packet Bangladesh, who beat out West Indies on the rankings for the eighth and final spot in the tournament. It will mark the first time since the inception of the 8-team tournament in 2009 that the team list has differed from the standard eight cricket playing nations.
Group B will consist of India, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka and looks to be the more competitive group and the one that Australia were lucky to avoid.
2017 ICC Champions Trophy Betting Tips
England will enter the tournament as favourites at $3.50 which is surprising given their ODI ranking is currently 5th. However, they are at home where they consistently play so well with the Duke ball and have players who are coming off massive IPL campaigns in Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler as well an all-star batting line-up consisting of Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Moeen Ali.
TIP: Ben Stokes top England wicket taker - $5 at Sportsbet
Along with England, the other prime contender is Australia. After a lacklustre Test series against India, David Warner returned to form in a big way in the 2017 IPL, winning the orange cap for the most series runs with a ridiculous 641 at an average of 58. Alongside him at the top of the leaderboard was Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Finch and Chris Lynn, who will combine for a lethal ODI batting line-up in June. The Aussie bowling line-up is also raring to go with Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins all selected in the squad and all heathy.
The other team that is somewhat unknown but whom you can never rule out is India. They are the reigning champions of the ICC Champions Trophy and still boast one of the best batting line-ups in world cricket. MS Dhoni will retain the gloves for the ODI format while Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh make up an absolutely lethal top/middle order. The Indians also boast two of the best spinners in the world in Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin, who proved their capability to play in England with 20 wickets between them in the 2013 Champions Trophy.
TIP: Ravi Jadeja top tournament wicket taker - $51 at Sportsbet
I’ve always thought while bowling line-ups win you Test matches, batting line-ups win shorter format games, and the three teams mentioned above have the best batting line-ups in the world. South Africa could arguably be thrown into the mix as well but between the string of injuries to AB de Villiers over the past few years and the form yoyo that is Hashim Amla, I just don’t trust them enough.
TIP: Quinton de Kock top South Africa runscorer - $4 at Sportsbet
With Australia and England facing off in Group A, if they both advance they will be in opposite semi-finals, backing them to reach the final could be a good bet with England paying $2 and Australia $2.25. However, as we saw in the 2015 World Cup, England have a knack of choking on the big stage, so always be wary when betting on the poms.
It might be the patriotic choice but I think it’s hard to look past the Aussies here. They have so many batsmen who are capable of winning a game off their own bat in Warner, Smith, Finch, Lynn and Maxwell. All it takes is one of those batsmen to go off each game and they will post a total of over 300. Because of the evenness of the field this year, $4 is probably the best price we have seen for Australia to win a major tournament in a while.
TIP: Australia to win the ICC Champions Trophy - $4 at Ladbrokes
2017 ICC Champions Trophy Schedule
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