England vs Australia prediction and cricket betting tips

Where to watch England vs Australia

Sky Sports Cricket, 11am Saturday

Best bets

Will Jacks top England runscorer
1pt 4-1 general

Travis Head to be player of the match
1pt 17-2 Betfair, Paddy Power

England vs Australia prediction

World champions Australia proved too streetwise for England in Thursday's first ODI at Trent Bridge and they are favourites to go 2-0 up in the five-match series at Headingley.

The Aussies overcame several setbacks to stretch their ODI winning streak to 13 matches as World Cup winners Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell were ruled out of the series opener due to illness.

Debutant fast bowler Ben Dwarshuis suffered a shoulder injury in the field but part-time spinners Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Short helped reduce England from 213-2 to 315 all out.

Head's brilliant 152 not out and Labuschagne's unbeaten 77 sealed a comfortable seven-wicket win and England will need to raise their game in Leeds.

Stand-in captain Harry Brook is part of an inexperienced batting unit – number 11 Adil Rashid is the leading ODI runscorer in the squad – but Will Jacks played nicely for his 62 from 56 balls.

The number three has made three half-centuries in his last six ODI innings, after last year's scores of 94 against Ireland and 73 against the West Indies, and he is worth supporting in the England top-runscorer market.

Head's excellence at the top of the order for Australia is no secret but there may still be some juice in his player-of-the-match odds.

He claimed the award on Thursday, when he took the last two England wickets before dominating Australia's run-chase, and he was also player of the match in this month's first T20 series openers against Scotland and England.

The left-hander has scored five dazzling centuries in 24 innings since returning to the one-day team in 2022 and those tons include 152 against England at the MCG in November 2022 and a matchwinning 137 in last year's World Cup final triumph against India.

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