England Cricket / Frank Gregan / 05 April 2010 /

The T20 World Cup gets under way later this month and England have announced a new-look side for the tournament, says Frank Gregan. But can they produce the goods at the crease?

Twenty20 World Cups seem to come around more often than tax returns, insurance renewals and the MOT. It's just over nine months since the last one but England named their squad for this year's tournament, which gets underway on the 30th April, a week ago. It promises to be a wham bam, thank you Ma'am affair, 17 days from flash to bang and it should be a corker.

England have wrung the changes, 40% of last year's squad have been ditched, out go Rob Key, James Foster, Owais Shah, Graham Napier, Adil Rashid and the injured Dimitri Mascarenhas. Owais Shah has been unlucky again. He seems to be one of those players who's easy to drop. He has bags of talent and possesses an excellent temperament but every time somebody has to give way it's his name that is first up for discussion. His omission is very surprising given the current trend of trying to make sure that every man in the side is more than handy with the bat.

The new school of thought seems to be that balance is no longer a major factor when picking a T20 team. It's all about batsmen and any all-rounder selected should prioritise batting first and bowling second.

England haven't really conformed to the new trend with their squad selection although in Craig Kieswetter they may have unearthed a gem, a batsman who can keep wicket and they have three highly talented batsmen in Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara who some consider to be pie chuckers in any other format of the game but are more than capable of getting through four overs of T20.

So has the England squad got balance? Many pundits who believe there is no longer a place in a T20 starting line-up for a strike bowler who can't bat believe that the selectors haven't gone far enough and should have been more radical. If the criteria is that everyone has to be a batsman then the two names that stand out in the squad are James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom. Those two at the crease with 20 needed off the last two overs is not what England supporters want to see.

Graeme Swann, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Pietersen, Bopara, Collingwood, Mike Yardy and Ajmal Shahzad. Any five of those eight could be used as a bowling attack safe in the knowledge that when it was their turn at the crease with willow in hand the scorer would still be needed.

Add the wicketkeeper Kieswetter to the list above and along with Michael Lumb and Eoin Morgan you have 11 players who can bat. Stuart Broad is probably right on the border line and is worth keeping in the squad. If you're old school you'll be delighted with the balance, if you're not you'll be wishing the other three places occupied by Anderson, Sidebottom and James Tredwell had instead been given to Owais Shah, Joe Denly and Jonathan Trott.

They are [11.5] to win the tournament and given their current vein of form that looks a big price. If you're reading this wearing your Union Jack boxer shorts, drinking tea from a Charles and Diana mug and listening to Land of Hope and Glory on your ipod don't let me put you off, but remember, England have never won any (50 or 20 over) World Cup.

Australia are the favourites at [4.6], proof that despite previous failings the Aussies now take the format seriously. My heart says England, my head says Australia but my wallet is going to be backing the West Indies. At [13.5] to back the hosts will be desperate to perform well on home soil and this is the only format of the game that this current crop of West Indians seem to enjoy.

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