4th February 2012

Commonwealth Bank Series Betting: India can outshine the hosts in return of the tri-series

After a few years with bi-lateral ODI series in Australia, the regular format of the tri-series returns this summer and Sri Lanka are the side who have been chosen to join India and Australia in the tournament. That means the event has the hosts and the two finalists of the last World Cup so should get plenty of attention and there should be some top cricket played. Australia are the 4/6 favourites for the tournament with Boylesports.

The format of the Commonwealth Bank Series is that each team plays the other four times in the round robin phase of the event and then the top two sides at the end of those 12 matches will compete in a best of three match final so in total the tournament runs for around 5 weeks and takes in matches all across Australia.

Australia have named a pretty young squad for the early stages of this tournament. There is no Shane Watson who is still recovering from injury while Brad Haddin and Shaun Marsh have been dropped. There is also no place in the bowling attack for Peter Siddle. Middle order batsman Peter Forrest has been called up for the first time.

India have named what you would call their regular one day side. They remain without Yuvraj Singh who is still battling an illness but Sachin Tendulkar is in the squad. The squad also includes Zaheer Khan who will be playing his first ODI series since the World Cup. He will team up with Praveen Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar in the seam attack.

Sri Lanka have changed their captain ahead of this series as Mahela Jayawardene takes over from Dilshan. Dilshan remains in the squad though and there is a recall for Farveez Maharoof who will join the likes of Chanaka Welegedera, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera in the seam department. There is no place for Suraj Randiv or Ajantha Mendis in the squad.

There’s too much going on with Sri Lankan cricket for me to be confident in them at the minute. I would be surprised if the final isn’t Australia vs India and I like the 11/4 that India win the series. This is much more their strong suit and we saw in the 2^nd T20 on Friday that they can beat the Australians. They have a lot of big game players which a young Australian side lack in one or two areas and at 11/4 I think India are the call in the Commonwealth Bank Series this year.

Back India to win Commonwealth Bank Series for a 3/10 stake at 3.75 with BetVictor

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