West Indies v England Third T20 Tips: Top-bat picks at 17/2 and 12/1

• Moeen may be bumped up the order

• Fast-scoring Russell big at 12/113.00

• England should read Ed's pitch report

West Indies v England
Saturday 15 December, 17:30
TV: Live on TNT Sports

West Indies v England Third T20 team news

West Indies went 2-0 up in Grenada when defending 176 with relative ease. It would be a surprise if they changed their XI.

Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie whirled away in tandem impressivley after Brandon King's unbeaten 82 put them in charge. Hosein and Motie had combined figures of three for 33. Motie was outstanding conceding only nine and that was where the game was won.

Probable XI: King, Mayers, Pooran, Hope, Powell, Hetmyer, Russell, Shepherd, Holder, Akeal, Joseph

England are in a bit of a state. They picked five right-handers for game two, seemingly unaware of the threat posed by twin slow-left arm spinners from the Windies. The tourists actually adapted well moving Sam Curran up but it had a feel of 'oh yeah, didn't realise that!'

Reece Topley would be a good addition but we're beginning to wonder whether he's fit. Gus Atkinson or John Turner could be given a run out, too.

Tymal Mills or Chris Woakes could miss out. Alternatively Curran may soon have to be picked as a batter only.

Possible XI: Buttler, Salt, Jacks, S Curran/Moeen, Brook, Livingstone, Woakes, Rehan, Rashid, Topley/Atkinson

West Indies v England Third T20 pitch report

The teams remain in Grenada and perhaps England should have read our pitch report, otherwise they wouldn't have decided to bowl first.

There have now been seven T20 played at the National Stadium in Grenada since 2020. More than 160 in first-innings has been busted in each of them. Six of the games have been won by the team batting first.

We were on over 176.5 first-innings runs and it was a pretty hard loss to take with the last two balls dots. It is an overs game on the par line at a similar range.

West Indies v England Third T20 match odds

West Indies are 1.9520/21 with England 2.0421/20. It's only taken two defeats but the match odds markets appears to have England at about the right price.

England have now lost 10 of their last 14 white-ball matches since the start of the World Cup and it's seven beats in nine in T20. As we said for game one, we expect the team batting first to be odds-on at the break.

West Indies v England Third player bets

Curran could well bat at No 4 again so it has to be said that Sportsbook's 17/118.00 about top scoring is a wrong price. Moeen Ali may also be bumped up to break up the influence of the spinners so 17/29.50 has appeal.

The smarter solution would be to recall Ben Duckett, of course. For West Indies we do like Andre Russell at 12/113.00 given his fast-scoring ability.

Read more of Ed Hawkins' analysis here