mvaughan

The likes of Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott will be glad to be home already. They got absolutely thrashed in the ODI series and I'm sure they won't have been in the mood for a one-off T20 match against an Indian side high on confidence and littered with in-form players.

The irony of it is that it's England, not India, who are the T20 World Champions and the number one ranked side in the world. But we must put that into context. For starters England have played very few T20 matches in the sub-Continent and if their ODI record is anything to go by, if they'd played many more I'm not sure that they would be top of the pile. Then we need to remember the manner of England's World Cup win. They played the whole tournament with virtually the same XI (they had no injuries) and chased in pretty much every match so knew what they had to do to get over the line. They had a tried and trusted formula and in Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen four incredibly consistent performers throughout the tournament.

The problem for would-be England backers at 2.46 is that none of those first three will be playing on Saturday, whilst KP is a major doubt. Sidebottom has retired from international cricket in order to prolong his international career whilst Broad and Morgan didn't make this tour through injury. One thing we've learnt over the last few weeks is that England are a very different proposition with and without the Irishman. He's scored priceless half-centuries and wonderful tons at crucial times to help England set big scores and chase down totals. With him England are a very good side, without him they're pretty ordinary.

This pitch could be a real 'turner' and if it is, that signals big trouble for England. They haven't been able to handle spin during the ODI series so there's no reason why they should be able to all of a sudden cope with it now. I suppose there's a possibility that England bat first and that the likes of Craig Kieswetter and Alex Hales go for broke with some big hits from the start and it all comes off. The pitch might then deteriorate and India don't quite chase down the total in difficult conditions. But those are too many 'ifs' for me and I'd at least want to be sure KP was playing before wagering any money on England. Yes, it's a shortish price in a format where anything can happen, but we have to back India again.

Talking of tried and trusted formulas, siding with Virat Kohli to top score for India a couple of times in the ODIs proved a profitable strategy so we're backing him again. I praised Man Of The Series MS Dhoni no end over the last few weeks here on betting.betfair and Suresh Raina is extremely dangerous in this format. But Kohli will come in higher and that could make all the difference.


Recommended Bets

3pts Back India to win @ 1.67
1 pt Back Virat Kohli to be Top Indian batsman @ 5.0


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