England v Ireland predictions and cricket betting tips
Where to watch England v Ireland
Sky Sports Cricket, 11am Thursday
Best bets
Harry Tector to score over 19.5 first-innings runs
3pts 5-6 Coral, Ladbrokes
Harry Brook to score a first-innings fifty
2pts 7-4 Betfair, Paddy Power
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England v Ireland predictions
England's Ashes summer begins with a one-off four-day Test against Ireland at Lord's and the 22-1 underdogs face a daunting challenge.
Since coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes took over last year, England have won ten of their 12 matches against New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan in thrilling fashion.
It could easily have been 11 wins in 12 as England lost their most recent Test in February by one run against New Zealand, who had followed on after conceding a 224-run first-innings deficit.
That setback will not deter McCullum and Stokes from their ultra-aggressive approach and, even though the Ireland Test is a four-day contest, the draw is understandably friendless in the betting.
England have named their 11 with a powerful middle-order bolstered by the return from injury of Jonny Bairstow, who keeps wicket in place of the unfortunate Ben Foakes. Fast bowlers James Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood are not risked with the first Ashes Test starting on June 16 so Stuart Broad leads an attack featuring debutant Josh Tongue, Matthew Potts and spinner Jack Leach, who scored 92 as nightwatchman against Ireland four years ago.
There are doubts over how much bowling skipper Stokes will be able to do this summer. He was troubled by a toe injury at the IPL, making just two appearances for Chennai Super Kings, but England needed only two bowlers, Broad and Chris Woakes, to bowl out Ireland for 38 in the second innings of the 2019 Test.
The Irish have played only six Test matches, losing all six, and three of those matches were this year in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
They racked up 492, comfortably their highest total, in April's second Test in Galle but still ended up losing by an innings and ten runs and face a different, but equally tricky, examination against England's bowlers under cloudy skies at Lord's.
The 23-year-old Harry Tector, set to come in at number four, is Ireland's most exciting batting prospect and he can eclipse a modest first-innings runs line of 19.5. Tector's Test scores this year have been 50, 56, 34, 42, 18 and 85 and he is seventh, one place above India legend Virat Kohli, in the ICC's ODI batting rankings after cracking 140 against Bangladesh last month.
England have their own hard-hitting Harry in the middle-order and Harry Brook is worth backing to continue a stunning start to his Test career with a first-innings fifty. Brook averages 80.9 after ten innings, with four centuries and three fifties, and this looks an ideal opportunity for him to bounce back from a patchy IPL campaign for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
