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Saturday 4 July, 14:30
TV: Sky Sports
England v India second T20 team news
England were left frustrated by the weather in Durham. Quelle surprise. It could be a similar story in Manchester. They would have fancied their chances of a real crack at India's target of 190. Restricting India to under 200 these days is no mean feat.
Not least for a below-strength team. There was no Jofra Archer, for example. He could come back into the XI at the expense of Luke Wood. Archer's ability against left-handers makes him a potent weapon against Abhishek Sharma.
Archer or Wood, what is once again noticeable about England is their batting depth - all the way down to No 10. Saqib Mahmood, a bit of a forgotten man, is the No 11 and reminded all of his ability with three wickets.
Possible XI: Salt, Buttler, Bethell, Brook, Banton, Jacks, S Curran, Dawson, Archer, Rashid, Mahmood
India may once again resist the calls to give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi a debut. But another failure for Sanju Samson and they may have no choice. Samson has six runs in three innings on tour.
The tourists sprang something of a surprise in Durham with their line-up. Given the wet conditions it was a bit of a gamble to pick two specialist spinners in Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakravarthy, particularly when they also selected Axar Patel. There were 20 overs of tweak available.
Bishnoi could well miss out to Prince Yadav with the tourists looking shy on pace. Prasidh Krishna is another option.
Possible XI: Samson, Abhishek, Ishan, Shreyas, Tilak, Dube, Axar, Harshit, Arshdeep, Prasidh, Chakravarthy
England v India second T20 pitch report
There does appear to be a significant advantage to batting first in day T20 at Old Trafford in all matches in the last three years. In the 12 matches that have produced results, eight have been won by the team posting a score. There is a marked difference in run rates between first and second, too. An RPO of 9.14 versus 8.13 is big. Over a five-year study period it's 12 wins from 17 with 9.46 trumping 8.41.
However, there have been no T20i in either study filter. The last day international was in 2020 when England got up to chase Pakistan's 195 with five balls to spare.
In the Blast this season there have been two matches, both contrasting. Lancashire smashed 208 to beat Nottinghamshire with ease. But then they totalled only 145 to go down by two wickets in a tight attempt to defend against Leicestershire.
Unfortunately, another poor weather forecast means we cannot bet pre-toss with any confidence. From 14.00 to 16.00 there is around a 40% chance of rain. The threat of rain is never less than 27% during the hours of play and the forecast for the evening is poor.
Sportsbook have both team's total match runs at over/under 183.5 at the 5/61.84 mark. The brave will be shorting in case seam and swing in damp conditions is available.
England v India second T20 match prediction
Perhaps unsurprisingly given identical runs quotes, Sportsbook find it hard to split the pair. England, however, are marginal favourites at 5/61.84. On the Exchange, it is much more narrow. The hosts at 1.9420/21 play India's 2.0421/20.
The sudden interest in England can only really be down to potentially bowler-friendly conditions. India, the world champions, should really be going off favourites. Just as they did in game one.
Was there something particularly disturbing in their batting effort at the Riverside that we missed? Their 189 was an overs winner on the Sportsbook line. Or is there a delayed reaction to the stunning 2-0 defeat by Ireland?
It's unfortunate because we want to be on England in case there is seam and swing. But there's no evidence they should be jollies, albeit narrow ones. Market watchers with experience will know that the vagaries of the match odds movements do not include a change in weather conditions suiting one team or another.
England v India second T20 player bets
With the weather playing spoilsport for any clear angles, the best route to profit at this stage looks likely to be leveraging the rain for a top innings runscorer bet. Step forward Phil Salt on his home ground. If we do lose overs it is much preferable to be on an opener given they are guaranteed to bat and have the chance to make a sizeable dent in a shortened contest. We also know Salt has a better win rate than Sportsbook's 7/24.50 suggests. Salt hit 141 off 101 against South Africa there last summer.
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