The hosts go into the competition looking like they will be without one of their key players Andrew Flintoff which is a huge blow for them. Add to that the uncertainty over Kevin Pitersen's fitness and you have the possibilty of their 2 best Twenty/20 players possibly missing from the starting lineup.

Squad :-

Paul Collingwood (c) James Anderson
Ravi Bopara Stuart Broad
Andrew Flintoff James Foster (wk)
Robert Key Dimitri Mascarenhas
Eoin Morgan Graham Napier
Kevin Pietersen Owais Shah
Ryan Sidebottom Graeme Swann
Luke Wright

Looking through the squad there are some very good selections mixed in with some very strange ones. The good I would class as selecting Bopara and Napier, the strange selections I would say are the keeper Foster, Robert Key and Ryan Sidebottom.

England have a lot of domestic experience in this format of the game and of course will have home advantage with the crowds behind them and they will naturally be familiar with the conditions.

However I look through the squad and I dont get that excitement or that buzz about watching this team in action. The skipper Collingwood doesnt fill me with much confidence, whenever I've seen him skipper a team he has looked out of his depth. The quick bowling department without Flintoff doesnt look all that strong and the batting will be heavily reliant on Bopara and Pietersen.

Strength : Excellent fielding unit

Weakness : Pace bowling looks like it will leak runs

Main Man : Ravi Bopara, who could be one of the stars of the tournament

Expectations : Super 8s and then watch the rest of the tournament on their tv's