England vs South Africa Odds: Can England send Ben Stokes off in style?

The games continue to come thick and fast for England's white ball squad. After losing the T20 series and ODI series 2-1 to India, they now face a similar schedule against South Africa, starting with three ODI's, three T20s and then a test series. 

Here at BettingOdds.com, we're gonna be with you every step of the way as your home of cricket and our man Adam Roberts is on hand yet again to pick out two bets for your attention. 

The world of English cricket was in shock on Monday as their test captain and world cup winning hero Ben Stokes announced his retirement from the longer format of white ball cricket. It wasn't entirely unexpected as the demands of being a multi-format cricketer in the modern age are ridiculous. You've only got to look at the current England schedule this summer to see why he feels like he can't play all three formats. It is absolutely stacked and there is a max of 2/3 days rest between each game. He's also pulled out of playing for the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred and has had issues with injuries and mental health struggles in the past 18 months. It looks a wise decision and one that should hopefully benefit his red ball career and his superb start to test captaincy. 

The loss of Stokes is another blow to England's white-ball squad that has gone from looking invincible, to looking vulnerable. Loss of key bowlers such as Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes has been a huge loss and to see their Captain Eoin Morgan retire, and now Stokes is a hammer blow as they look to rebuild. They still possess plenty of attacking ability in the form of Phil Salt, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow etc but will be a little dismayed by losing both series against the Indians. They look to quickly reply against the touring South Africans.

The Proteas, unlike England, have played very little cricket of late, their last series was a 2-2 T20I draw against the Indians, so they could be a little undercooked here. They are without their talisman Temba Bavuma who misses out through injury, so will be skippered by Keshav Maharaj instead. 

Predicted team news:

England:  Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Matthew Potts, Reece Topley

South Africa:  Janneman Malan, Quinton de Kock (wk), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj (c), Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi.

My two picks are both middle order batsmen, no surprise there, given the dominance of the new ball bowlers over the top order during these white-ball games this summer. Much as I'd like to pick Benjamin Stokes in his final ODI game, I've veered from sentimentality and gone for Jos Buttler to top score for England. The new skipper has had a very difficult transition into his new role but his batting has still looked pretty impressive. After a stellar spring, where he top scored at the IPL, then destroyed the minnows of the Netherlands, Buttler has found it tougher going but has still looked like England's leading light with the bat. 

He top scored in two of the three ODI's against India and I think he has a pretty decent chance of doing so again here. 

My next selection is the South African multi-format veteran Rassie van der Dussen. The 33-year-old is a quality operator in all three forms of the game but its at ODI's that he really shines. In his 35 matches to date, he has 1365 runs at 71.84 with two centuries and 11 50's. Again, I'm expecting Reece Topley and David Willey to cause some problems with the new Kookaburra but once it settles down, the likes of van der Dussen can make hay. The 9/2 on offer looks big, given his record.