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Cook can prove England’s hero

After the successful start to his ODI captaincy, Alastair Cook returns to the Test side to open against the number one Test side in the world. Cook has sometimes had difficulty in adapting his game to the shorter format, but the opener notched up 298 runs from five ODI’s against Sri Lanka.

The past few months have been somewhat of a golden patch for Cook, who also impressed with the bat in the three match Test series against Sri Lanka. In the first Test Cook notched 133 runs in his only innings and followed that up with 106 in the second innings of the Lord’s Test. Cook averaged a stunning 98 runs from his four Test innings against Sri Lanka.

With the Three Lions’ batting line-up in such strong form it may also be worth looking at the run totals in the opening innings. First innings totals for England have been particularly strong in their recent Tests on the Lord’s ground and their highest total was 505 runs – which came against Bangladesh in 2010. In England’s last four first innings at Lord’s, the side have averaged 467 runs.

In that period there have been some excellent batting performances and the ton-up market might be of interest to punters. During the last four England Test matches at Lord’s, the side average 92 points in the ton-ups.