Big events in the world of football and cricket! We're ahead of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers taking place over the next week or so, and the start of the Indian Premier League, cricket’s biggest and richest domestic tournament.
Football World Cup Qualifiers
- Start: Thursday, 26 March
- Venue: Cities around Europe
- Live coverage: BBC, ITV, RAI
Brazil, Spain, England, Argentina, France and Portugal have all booked their places at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but for others, there’s still plenty of work left to do.
The list of European teams who still have a chance to make it to next year’s World Cup includes Euro 92 winners Denmark, an ever-competitive Turkey side, and Poland, who come under that category of teams who are always very hard to beat.
For their 37-year-old skipper, Robert Lewandowski, a man with over 700 goals to his name at the professional level, including being both the third-highest scorer in the history of the Champions League and the third-highest scorer in European international football, it will surely be his last shot at winning a major international tournament.
Cristiano Ronaldo tops both those lists, by the way.
But the stand-out name on that list is one who has won the FIFA World Cup on three separate occasions: Italy. Shockingly, they missed out on qualification for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, so it’s no certainty that they’ll make it this time.
Each of the 16 teams playing the World Cup Qualifiers will have to safely negotiate two more matches: the first, played on Thursday, which is a sort of semi-final. and then another on Tuesday, if they’re to be at next year’s World Cup.
Football World Cup Qualifiers Betting Tip: Robert Lewandowski to Score Anytime
It’s pretty surprising that you can get odds of 2.6 on the great Robert Lewandowski (see below) scoring against Albania. Poland are strong favourites to win the game at 1.62, and he’s their most likely source of a goal.
He scored two against Newcastle in the Champions League last week, got one when Poland were last in action against Malta, and has 19 in 42 matches this season, so he’s certainly still got it.
Indian Premier League
- Start: 28 March
- Venue: Grounds all around India
- Coverage: Sky Sports Cricket/Sky Sports Main Event
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the biggest, most popular, and richest cricket T20 franchise tournament in the world. In fact, it’s such a big deal that it’s arguably even more high-profile than the recently concluded T20 World Cup, won by India, or the ODI World Cup.
It’s contested by 10 teams from all of the biggest Indian cities across a total of 84 matches.
To an extent, it’s understandable that the Mumbai Indians are the 4.33 favourites to win it. After all, they’re one of two sides to have won it on five different occasions, alongside the Chennai Super Kings (9.0 to win it this year), and have in Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s best fast bowler full stop, and a man who played such an important role in India winning that T20 World Cup a couple of weeks ago.
They also have India T20 captain Sky Yadav, all-action all-rounder Hardik Pandya, and former all-format India skipper Rohit Sharma in their ranks, while England’s Will Jacks and New Zealander Trent Boult are others to add stardust to the team.
But Mumbai certainly haven’t had it all their own way of late, with only two appearances in the Playoffs in the last five years and not even a runner-up spot when they made it that far, so their form will need to improve considerably.
RCB are 6.5 to go back-to-back, which would be some achievement, while the Gujarat Titans (8.0) and the Punjab Kings (8.5), last year’s runners-up, are others to look out for.
At the other end of the scale, the Lucknow Super Giants are the 5.0 favourites to finish rock bottom, with the Rajasthan Royals 5.5 and the Kolkata Knight Riders 8.0 in the same market.
Odds on such markets as Player of the Tournament, Top Batsman and Top Bowler will become available during the week.
Indian Premier League Betting Tip: The Rajasthan Royals to Finish in the Top 4
The Rajasthan Royals are the rank outsiders of the lot at 14.0, but should they be? Yes, they had a poor time last year, but back in 2022, they made the final, and in 2024, they at least made the Playoffs.
They recruited well in the auction by bringing in Ravindra Jadeja, the man who can do the lot, and they will pair him with Ravi Bishnoi as a spin threat. West Indian Shimron Hetmyer was superb at the recent T20 World Cup, while Englishman Jofra Archer's raw pace will always pose problems for opposition batsmen.
It may be too much of an ask for them to win it, or even make the final, but 3.3 on a Top 4 finish looks a decent bet.
