 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Legendary all-rounder Ian Botham predicts that after outplaying India 4-0 in the just-concluded Tests, England will also go on to win the limited-o'ers series starting with a one-off Twenty20 match on August 31.
"I think the England squad to be named on Friday will beat India in the fi'e-match one-day series. India are world champions and England were knocked out in the quarter-finals, but don't forget India came to these shores as the world No.1 Test team and look what happened," Botham wrote in his column for The Daily Mirror.
"England are the current World Twenty20 champions and on home soil they have been pretty successful. A knackering series in Australia and the World Cup after the Ashes apart, England's one-day form has been good for a couple of years. I expect to see them target that form of the game o'er the next few months and beyond," he added.
Botham lavished praise on England for whitewashing India 4-0 with consistently good performances in the just-concluded Test series.
"It has been coming for a while and I've known for some time I was watching a special Test team, but it was still wonderful to see them deliver the way they did by finishing with a whitewash of the Indians," he said.
"They are the very best and they will continue to be the best for years to come I believe. Just how many years is up to them, but what I'm seeing is a work ethic and a hunger that will not be diminished while this group are together.
"And there is no way captain Andrew Strauss or coach Andy Flower will let them off the hook if they think they've made it," he added.