Graeme Swann: Aggressive England must steamroller Afghanistan

Like just about everyone I'm expecting an England win against Afghanistan at Old Trafford but what I want to see is a ruthless one.

Afghanistan, in World Cup terms, are the weak link. That's not to say they are without talent, and I do think they have the potential to frighten a couple of teams. Certainly the openers will have their day against one or two bowling attacks and in Rashid Khan they have a world-class talent with the ball.

But I would be horrified if that happened against this England team.

Strongest side is a must

They are red-hot favourites to win this but I want to see England field a full-strength side and go for it against the only team without a win in this tournament.

I'm not a fan of rotating just to give a starter a rest or a sub some game time. I think it's a weak approach. If there are injuries, yes, but I don't agree with chopping and changing. I'd rather have a team that wins games, where everyone knows their positions and it starts working like clockwork. Other teams fear our best XI so start them!

It's a long World Cup with plenty of rest time and anyone that can't get through this World Cup playing every game should not be a professional cricketer quite frankly. County cricketers play five days per week through an entire summer, these guys are playing one game every four or five days!

Obviously there are injury concerns and Jason Roy is out for a couple of games but James Vince is a natural replacement there. A start for Moeen Ali, perhaps for Eoin Morgan (who has a niggle) would help Adil Rashid who has been exposed a bit without his spin partner keeping one end tied up.

Stay aggressive, England

The worst thing you can do against weak opposition is to stop playing your natural game. The team that takes its foot off the gas - either through fear of failure or fear of destroying an opponent - will lose.

England have to treat Afghanistan like they would Australia - that means staying proactive and playing their trademark attacking brand of cricket.

This is Afghanistan's cup final so we must play hard - because they definitely will - and, trust me, they're good enough to cause an upset. They don't have the experience or depth to contend in the long run but they can certainly play.

Vince and Archer the best match bets

But this should be relatively simple for England and in terms of match bets it's tough to get away from the openers to top score for us. Jonny Bairstow has made some useful runs in recent games without really delivering the big score so Vince plays he might represent a bit of value against his fellow opener, at 16/5.

Bowling-wise I can't get past Jofra Archer, at 11/4. He's awesome isn't he? I just wish we'd had him when I was playing. I'd have loved to be in the slips watching Archer steaming in.

India and England set the standard

India were brilliant against Pakistan and they have every right to be up there in the betting, but I still fancy England to go all the way. Australia have been a little bit lucky so far - their batsmen play a little bit old-fashioned and they were bailed out by Mitchell Starc against Sri Lanka. I wouldn't put them in the same bracket as England or India. New Zealand are untested so far, playing all the easy sides and then seeing their clash with India rained off. They are not battle-hardened yet.

Showing final free-to-air the right move

I think it would be a great idea to screen the World Cup final free-to-air. Whether the ICC and Sky can see the bigger picture we shall see. I think it would be a good gesture and would help English cricket move forward.

The sport has suffered from being locked away on pay TV. For instance, the final day of the fifth Ashes test in 2005 was watched by 10 times the amount as in 2009! That's all you need to know.

We really shouldn't have to do initiatives to make the national team more famous and recognisable to kids. These guys should be poster boys if we want the game to grow. We must think long-term and look beyond the immediate returns.