Betting on England Cricket Team Without Kevin Pietersen

England is fresh from losing out big time in the recent Ashes Down Under, but sportsbooks and punters already look to the future.

The disastrous Australian tour for the English cricketers led to announcements that Kevin Pietersen will call it a day as team England member. The fan camp is divided: some think this day came too soon, but others couldn’t wait for him to end the England career.

One thing fans and punters wagering at online sportsbooks in United Kingdom agree upon: Pietersen is England’s most destructive batsman. Kevin is now 33, but he’s still able to steal a game from the opponent in a totally unique way. Naturally, he was the best run scorer event he recent Ashes disaster.

Pietersen’s departure affects England cricket odds

• With Kevin Pietersen ending his England career, the team has less chances

• Online sportsbooks in the UK downgraded England’s odds for T20

• Ashley Giles is favored to take the coach position

To make matters worse, in just a month’s time there’s going to be a T20 World Cup hosted in Bangladesh. England without Pietersen just lost a T20 event to Australia 3-0. This makes it that much harder for bookies under British gambling laws to come up with betting odds on the upcoming matches involving England.

Cricket betting lines at online sportsbooks

Let’s take a look at how Pietersen’s departure has affected the odds for England. It might be a stretch to say that his absence made all the difference in latest cricket matches, but the overall failure of England’s batting line-up provided glimpse of hope that Kevin will be back to remedy the situation come the next big event.

England cricket team has Michael Lumb, Alex Hales, and Luke Wright in their midst, but they all have failed to perform Down Under. So betting on them suddenly turning the tables in the upcoming matches in Dhaka and Chittagong may not be the best idea.

However, this makes the betting odds for those who wish to bet on sports in the UK even more attractive should they choose England as favorites. The current line on England to take the next T20 is up to 12.00, heavily affected by the news of Pietersen’s absence. The safer bet here will be New Zealand, who have just crushed the tournament favorites, India, 4-0 in a one-day series.

Other factors affecting betting odds

It looks like Jonathan Trott will not be making it to play against India this summer either. Without him and Pietersen, England is down to the following choices: Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, and Ben Stokes. Ben has got a lot of potential, not to mention a quite elegant style of the game, but this line up will probably not be the most dangerous one for opponents. This leads to British online bookies giving England longer odds.

According to rumors, Pietersen wielded a lot of divisive influence on the England cricketers. Despite most of them denying that such an influence ever existed, there’s a clear problem of morale. It never hurts in any kind of sport to have a legend in your midst that will influence the end result on a mental level. But now with Pietersen gone, England is bound to have trouble in that department as well.

What about the new coach?

Odds at online sportsbooks in United Kingdom are not limited to just the results of upcoming matches. There’s also great speculation on who’s going to take up the position of England’s cricket team. Ashley Giles is the hot favorite at 1.54 odds. The fact that he’s a former Pietersen’s teammate certainly plays a role in his chances.

Well, the T20 World Cup is about a month away, scheduled to take place in Bangladesh from March 16th until April 6th. Let’s all wish England cricket team the very best of luck, despite their current hardships. However, the remaining 15 teams in the competition will be definitely looking to cause England some pain.