Preview - England

ENGLAND

The 3 time runners-up look to be going into the tournament with a lot of confidence with the background of winning the CB cup in Australia and even better – beating them 3 times. This was done in the absence of Vaughan and Pietersen – so this is definitely a confidence booster for the team.

The last 3 world cups have been nothing short of disaster for them and they would be looking to make big time amends this time around.

They would be missing Trescothick and Simon Jones due to injuries but would be hoping that Pietersen would provide the team with tons of aggression. They have this man who can win the match and even an entire series for you single handedly. He is aggressive, highly confident and consistent. If he can get going and with a bit of support from his team then he can change the fortunes of the team.

For now England would be hoping Vaughan can play every game. He is not only a good batsman but also an astute captain. No one would forget the fact that England beat Aus in Ashes 2005 and one of the reasons was his captaincy.

I don’t believe Vaughan will be fit enough to last the tournament. They do have a back up captain in Flintoff – am sure he will be called upon to do the job during some stage of the tournament. But unfortunately Freddy’s form dips a lot, especially his batting, if he’s the captain.

This might very well be the last WC for Vaughan given his never ending list of knee operations and he better answer his critics if he’s going to limp away if England fail badly.

Strengths:
· Pietersen’s aggressive batting.
· Collingwood’s cool head.
· Vaughan’s captaincy.
· Flintoff’s bowling.

Weaknesses:
· Vaughan’s dodgy knee (or the lack of it).
· Captain (Vaughan) unsure if he will play every match.
· Joyce and Bell tend to be slow batters.
· Woefully out of form Strauss.
· Panesar’s fielding, Erratic Sajid Mahmood.

Key Players:
· Undoubtedly Kevin Pietersen, Freddy Flintoff the all-rounder.
· Vaughan’s captaincy.
· Collingwood.

Dark Horse:
· Dalrymple, Monty Panesar

My Take:
· Super 8 Stage

My Team:
Michael Vaughan (c), Ed Joyce, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Jamie Dalrymple, Paul Nixon (wk), Liam Plunkett, James Anderson, Monty Panesar.