Fantasy: Plenty of value in the side batting second

Fantasy

Venue :  Headingley, Leeds

Average first innings score in last three years: 204

0% of the games have been won by team batting first

Pacers have picked 74.19% of the wickets to fall here. Spinners have picked 25.81% of the wickets.

*all data from last 3 years

Team News

> England have announced their XI. Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Moeen Ali come in for James Anderson, Josh Tongue and Ollie Pope. 

> Nathan Lyon is ruled out of the series. Todd Murphy will take his place in the XI. 

Suggested teams

While you could go for the above team, you can also choose your team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. You can use this tool to build your team with the help of algorithms. Then, based on your preferences, the platform will guide you through creating the ideal fantasy XI.

In-form Players Captain

In-form Players Vice Captain

Check out all our Fantasy Stats for the recent fantasy performance of all players set to be involved in the game.

Horses for courses

Top Run scorers at this venue

The above graphic tells you the top batters at the venue in the past three years. Click here to check the full list categorized on different parameters - runs, strike-rate, batting average etc.

Top wicket-takers at this venue

The above graphic tells you the top bowlers at the venue in the past three years. Click here to check the full list categorized on different parameters - wickets taken, bowling average, bowling economy etc.

Grand League Punts

> Headingley is a peculiar venue where the batting gets easier as the game progresses. Since 2013, the batting average in the fourth innings of the Test match is 36.3 compared to 25.3 in the first innings. Hence, pick the prime batters of the side batting second and you can select them as your captain or vice-captain. 

> Ben Stokes might bowl less in the Headingley Test given the availability of four specialist seam-bowling options alongside the off spin of Moeen Ali. Stokes did score a hundred in the previous game but his contribution with the bat has been underpar over the last 12 months. Hence, you can drop Stokes as a calculated risk. 

Probable XIs

England: James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Joe Root, Ben Stokes ( c ), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Duckett, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley

Australia: Josh Hazlewood, Steven Smith, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins ( c ), Travis Head, Alex Carey (wk), Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green