Briefly Cricket

I think the England squad to be named on Friday will beat India in the five-match one-day series. India are world champions and England were knocked out in the quarter-finals,but dont 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,Englands one-day form has been good for a couple of years. I expect to see them target that form of the game over the next few months and beyond, he added.

There is no way captain Andrew Strauss or coach Andy Flower will let India off the hook if they think theyve made it, he added.

We dominated a good side: Andy Flower

England coach Andy Flower feels Indias poor performance in the just-concluded Test series should in no way diminish his teams achievement of humbling a side which features some of the most experienced players in international cricket.

With players such as Sachin Tendulkar,Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in their ranks,India,despite being injury-hit,were no pushovers but England made them look very ordinary by handing a 4-0 drubbing.

They have dominated a very good side here,and I dont think we should forget that, said Flower. There are some very fine cricketers in that Indian side,and they have been performing at a high level for a very long time, the Zimbabwean added.

England have now become the worlds number one Test team by dethroning India and Flower lavished praise on his wards for the rise.

They are hugely experienced so to play like we did and to dominate them like we did is a great credit to these England players, he said. It gives me tremendous satisfaction,but it is the players we have to think about, he said.