England vs Scotland tips and predictions: England to kick off T20 World Cup with comfortable win

When someone mentions England vs Scotland, you immediately think of the fiery clashes in the Calcutta Cup or the Auld Enemy games. 

If you're expecting a similar rivalry here then you've come to the wrong place, as it's a lot less spicy in the cricketing world. 

Scotland have been handed the misfortune of being drawn with the defending 50-over world champions Australia and the defending champions of this format, England. 

The associate nation have a huge mountain to climb if they want to make it to the Super 8's, most likely needing a win against one of the two and no slip-ups against Oman and Namibia. 

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England looked in good form in the two matches they played in the rain-interuptted T20 series with Pakistan, with captain Jos Buttler looking in good touch.

Buttler along with Phil Salt smashed 78 runs from the powerplay in the final T20 and sent a warning shot to the other contenders.

The England captain scored 123 runs across his two innings in that series and also had a good IPL and we're backing him to do well again and be England's top run scorer. 

Christmas came early for England fans on Thursday evening as they got to see Jofra Archer and Mark Wood bowl in tandem. 

Both looked in good touch, particularly Wood, and they are key to England's title chances. We're backing Wood to pick up more wickets after picking up two in the final game with Pakistan. 

Scotland do have some good players themselves, particulary Michael Jones and Brad Wheal, who have been good performers at county level in recent years for Durham and Hampshire respectively. 

Jones is fresh from a good knock in the T20 Blast and has an average of 27.5 in international T20's so we think the batsmen will be Scotland's leading run scorer.

Despite the presence of Jones and Wheal, the Scots will be without key bowler Josh Davey and that will be a blow against one of the most destructive batting line ups in the game. 

England to win doesn't offer much value so we're going to back Buttler and Salt to get a partnership of over 29.5 runs to fully exploit the market in what should be a comfortable win for the defending champions. 

 

Suggested bets

England first wicket over 29.5 runs

Jos Buttler to be England's top run scorer

Mark Wood to be England's highest wicket taker

Michael Jones to be Scotland's highest run scorer