Now that the World Series is over I can turn my attention back to England’s disaster of a tour to India. The final match is tomorrow, a one-off T20 in Calcutta. England are the reigning T20 World Champions as well as the number one ranked T20 side according to the ICC’s recently unveiled rankings. Despite this, I can’t see England winning. Admittedly, T20s are rather more of a lottery than any other format (as we saw against the West Indies) but England have played so abjectly against India that it will take a huge slice of luck to win. Graeme Swann will lead the side again and once again it will be a very young side.
After the match England will be able to fly home for a much needed rest until the series against Pakistan in the UAE in the new year. Whilst there will be a lot of questions asked about the performance in India, England have never been all that good at ODIs in India and the focus should certainly be on the upcoming series. Pakistan are playing rather well against Sri Lanka right now, and it is looking like it will be a good contest in January. Pakistan have shown that they have the firepower to bowl England out twice in that series (though they’ll need to improve their fielding). I think this will be the more interesting of the two series. Sri Lanka appear to pose the opposite problem; England found it difficult to bowl them out twice in England this summer and it won’t be any easier in Sri Lanka. England have not actually won a Test match in Sri Lanka since the last match of the 2001 series, but Sri Lanka are a worse side than they have been for some time and England are a much better side. I think England will manage to beat Sri Lanka 1-0, but I’m not sure about Pakistan. It’s going to be a tricky winter and the best thing England can do is get the T20 over with and put the series behind them.
Defensive Indifference 