English Coach Andy Flower is hopeful of a good showing his team in the T20 World Cup; a rather better one than their displays in T20 international cricket so far, which is a format that his team is admittedly inexperienced at. Flower indicated that having some of the English players at the IPL has helped his assess the T20 situation for his team.

According to Flower, in order to be able to succeed in the shortest format of international cricket, one has to be able to adapt, have strong hitters and top class batsmen leading the attack. Ravi Bopara, with his excellent showing at the IPL will be a key player for the English T20 World Cup campaign. "It is important to have a blend in your batting and I believe we have that in our side," said Flower. "Adaptability and flexibility is required because games can change so quickly. Down the order you need people who can hit boundaries and we have players like [Dimitri] Mascarenhas, [Owais] Shah, [Luke] Wright and [Graham] Napier to fulfill that role,” he added when he spoke in the cricket news.  He pointed out how Bopara has played the required role for his team; if required to do so, he has gone all out as an attacking bat and when required he has played the role of second fiddle.

"With the bowling a captain needs options in his attack - more so than in ODIs; people who can be brought on for one over to do a job. Everything is accelerated in Twenty20 cricket so one over is more like three or four. In terms of the variety in the bowling attack, you need a couple of quicks, a couple of medium pacers where the 'keeper stands up and spin options," Flower was quoted as having added when speaking in the cricket news.

According to flower, one does not necessarily need huge hitters, just that the team should be possessed of batmen capable of hitting the ball over the boundary. Another player that could emerge as key for the English T20 campaign is James Foster, who according to Flower has the scoring ability lower down the order in maneuvering the ball into different areas.

Flower also mentioned Eoin Morgan as being important as an able player of spin, which make for a varied bunch of players at his disposal which he would be making the best of, playing to the strengths of the team. Though Andrew Flintoff’s injury precludes him from the T20 World Cup participation, there are other options available to the English team: Samit Patel was an option eschewed in favour of Adil Rashid, leg spinner, due to the former’s fitness concerns.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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