Trading Talk - England v West Indies First Test

After England's disappointing winter tour in the West Indies, they will be relishing the chance to avenge their defeat and recapture some form in the two-match return tour before the Ashes series

Click here to spread bet on England v West Indies at Sporting Index

Andy Flower has made some bold selection decisions and spread bettors should have plenty to get their teeth into. The Sporting Index traders have made England series favourites with a win index spread of 30-32pts (25pts for a match win, 10 for a draw), against West Indies' spread of 15-17pts.

Buyers of England's spread will be hoping the introduction of Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan to the bowling attack will mean England are able to close out matches, something they failed to do in the Caribbean.

Buyers of England's match win index spread at 16.5pts might be worried about their recent record at Lord's where England have astonishingly failed to win a major Test since 2004, losing one and drawing their last six in that period.

Spread bettors in support of England may prefer to buy England's first-innings supremacy spread, currently at 45-65 runs - on the last six occasions England have on average held a 174-run lead but have been unable to bowl their opponents out.

Sporting Index's 'Trade deficit' market, a combined first-innings supremacy for both matches, might also be of interest to those same buyers. The spread is currently set at 85-115 in favour of England.

England have passed 500 runs in four of their past six first innings at Lord's and buyers of England's leading batsmen's runs will hope for the trend to continue. The total match runs of captain Andrew Strauss can be bought at 97 and no doubt buyers of the spread would love to see a repeat of last week's 150 for Middlesex.

An interesting series spread bet for those hoping to profit from England's trend for high innings totals is Sporting Index's imaginative, ''Hey hey for the monkeys" - where a point is awarded for every innings total over 500 over the two matches. The spread is set at 34-40.

Sellers of the West Indies match win index spread, at 6.5-8, might be slightly concerned at the signs of a Windies cricketing recovery during England's tour, but other than their shock single test win against South Africa, the Windies have not won in 45 overseas matches.

Punters who prefer to bet on player spread markets will be eagerly anticipating Shivnarine Chanderpaul's performance after his splendid batting display during the winter series.

Buyers of his runs spread for the first test, at 97, will be delighted to find out that he has top-scored in 59% of his 17 tests (65% in the top-two) over the last two years. Chanderpaul has also scored 883 runs on the last two tours in the UK - music to the ears of buyers of either his match runs or series runs spread at 168-178.

Buyers of Chris Gayle's runs at the same price (spread of 90-97) will be slightly peeved that he has not top-scored once in the same period. However, buyers of Gayle's series runs, at 167-177, will be encouraged that he has topped the series scoring charts for the West Indies twice in the last four years, both in New Zealand.

Please note that odds are correct at time of publication and are subject to change.