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India will want to put that 4-0 scoreline and those dismal performances in the Test series behind them as quickly as possible. A whitewash in a four-match series is rare enough but I can 't remember it ever having happened before to the team that was top of the world rankings! They will be desperate to set the record straight in the limited-overs stuff. Some of the players may be different but this is the same team and MS Dhoni will be reminding his troops that, while they may have lost their number one Test spot, they're still the World Champions in the 50-over game.

First though, there's a T20 match to be played at Old Trafford.

The thing about this England side is that they want to be the very best they can in all formats. Some teams may decide that Test cricket is the one they really want to excel at whereas others may see the longest format as a nuisance, preferring the fast-pace of ODIs and T20s. Andy Flower has been given the task of getting England to excel in all forms - seeing as they're the T20 World Champions and sit at the top of the Test rankings, you have to say that so far he's done a pretty good job.

Saturday's match may give us a first-sighting of a couple of new faces. Ben Stokes got a game the other day against Ireland and it wasn't a particularly happy debut, out for three and no chance to bowl because of an injury. But I know he's very highly-rated up at Durham and I have a feeling the England management have him pencilled in as a long-term candidate for the number six slot in the ODI team - a big-hitter in the middle order who can bowl a few overs for not many runs. Alex Hales of Notts is also highly-rated at the top of the order with an orthodox technique, whilst Jos Buttler is a clean-hitting youngster who is very capable in the field and can also keep wicket. That's a big bonus, particularly during overseas Series and tournaments. If your first-choice wicket-keeper is out for some reason you can always count on someone like Buttler to fill in and you know you'll be in safe hands. Or gloves, as the case may be...

The way the ODI game is going, almost anyone batting in the top seven must be able to clear the ropes on a consistent basis. There's room for one or two 'touch players', who use timing and placement to score their runs, but the others must be powerful guys who can take a bowling attack apart to put pressure on the opposition or score very quickly at the death. That's why guys like Stokes and Butler are fancied by the England management.

Wednesday's match should be quite close. We have Eoin Morgan, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann on a high after their Test exploits in their favoured conditions, up against Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli, who have all played lots of T20 in the IPL. There are some younger and fresher bodies in this T20 team so at the very least, we'll see some much-improved fielding performances from Dhoni's men.

If it's to be a close match we have to side with the outsiders on value grounds alone so that means backing India at 2.36. Dhoni has seen it all before in this format (and all other formats for that matter) while Stuart Broad is almost completely new to captaincy. The only previous time he was in charge of England, they lost to Sri Lanka.

So it's India for me with Virat Kohli top-scoring. He's a class act who is more suited to the shorter format because he has to face less of the short ball than he would in Test cricket. On what might be a good wicket, he's my pick to cash in.

Recommendations
3 pts Back India to win @ 2.36
1 pt Back Virat Kohli to top-score for India @ 6.0

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