Eoin Morgan and a new-look squad will be hoping to put the smile back on the faces of England cricket fans by leading the Three Lions to T20 glory against West Indies in Barbados.
After the horrors of the past few weeks Down Under in The Ashes rout, the shortest format of the game takes centre stage – and this is where England excel.
Yes, they missed out on glory at last year’s T20 World Cup – beaten by New Zealand in the semi-finals – but Morgan’s men are the top-ranked side in the world and, even allowing for some key absentees, they’ll be expecting to dot up against the Windies in this five-match series.
England Expects – Even Without Their Ashes’ Aces
England are much-changed and arguably much-weakened as they prepare for the first of five one-dayers, which start England’s build-up to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and the rest of England’s Ashes’ flops have flown home rather than out to the Caribbean where there is a very different look to the side.
Among the new names hoping to shine under Morgan are left-arm seamers George Garton and David Payne while all-rounder Phil Salt will be looking forward to his international T20 debut.
But there is still bags of all-round power, top-of-the-order brutality and death-bowling expertise in the visitors’ ranks with Moeen Ali, Jason Roy, Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid all key figures for the tourists, who are 20/39 to win the series and look very hard to oppose.
Pollard Charged With Halting Windies’ Decline
West Indies are 6/4 shots to win the series and in dire need of something good to happen to their cricket team.
At the T20 World Cup in November they managed a solitary win over Bangladesh and suffered the indignity of being skittled for just 55 by England.
Weeks later they went to Karachi to take on Pakistan in a three-match series and lost the lot, plunging to tenth in the world T20 rankings, below even Afghanistan.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, they kicked off 2022 by losing a one-day series at home to Ireland.
Kieron Pollard leads a team low on confidence but not short on talent and far better equipped at running quick singles now that Chris Gayle has hung up his bat.
Pollard will lean on the likes of Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder, Shai Hope and Darren Bravo – indeed the squad doesn’t lack experience; only one member of the group is under the age of 25.
England 8/1 To Chalk Up 5-0 Clean Sweep
The last time England were in West Indies was a little under three years ago when they won all three T20 showdowns and it’s 8/1 that they complete another clean sweep this time.
With the Windies on their knees, you wouldn’t rule it out, especially if explosive stars like Roy and Liam Livingstone come good.
But there is sufficient white-ball skill in the home ranks to suggest they can avoid being swept. A 4-1 England win is 11/4, while a narrow 3-2 win for the tourists on offer at 7/4.
*All odds correct at time of writing.