Youngsters key as India challenge Eng in T20

Manchester: The battle between limited-overs champions India and England gets underway with the one-off Twenty20 here on Wednesday. While England’s new T20 captain Stuart Broad will hope to lead from the front after his heroics in the Test series, MS Dhoni will hope the youngsters carry their match-winning form of practice games into the international arena.

After a goal-fest over the weekend in the English football's heartland, focus shifts to cricket and a run-fest is expected when the reigning Twenty 20 Champions run into the current ODI Champions.

Praveen Kumar has recovered from his injury and will spearhead the attack in Zaheer's absence. It will be interesting to see who Dhoni chooses to partner Praveen: the untested pace of Varun Aaron or the rusty swing of RP Singh.

Munaf Patel is certain to earn his first cap on tour after a baffling four-Test 'cooling-off' period and Dhoni's reluctance to field four pacers may leave Vinay Kumar on the bench, with Amit Mishra most likely to take the fourth bowler's role ahead Ravichandran Ashwin.

On the other hand, England's batting looks formidable even in the absence of Ian Bell and ODI skipper Alastair Cook, who are not part of the T20 squad. But there is enough firepower in the form of Lord's double-centurion Kevin Pietersen and limited-over specialists Craig Kieswetter and Eoin Morgan.

On the bowling front, skipper Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan - who tore India apart in the Test series - will try to prolong India's misery with the bat. They will have able assistance in the form of Steve Finn and Jade Dernbach, with Graeme Swann's off-spin completing a formidable lineup.

India and England have so far played two Twenty20 internationals against each other with a scoreline of 1-1.

Squads:

England: Stuart Broad (c), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Jose Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Ben Stokes, Graeme Swann.

India: MS Dhoni (c/wk), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Varun Aaron, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, RP Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid.