England face tough task in India

It is always dangerous to read too much into one performance but one thing is for certain, if England are to be competitive in the upcoming seven-match one-day series against India, then they will need to play much, much better than they did in their last warm-up game.

Bet365 make India 1/2 favourites to win the series, while England are 6/4, prices that are hardly surprising for various reasons. Firstly, India are at home. Secondly, they are coming off a great Test series win over Australia. And thirdly, they are much, much better than England at one-day cricket.

Now don't get me wrong. England are improving and with Andrew Flintoff back in the side and Steve Harmison bowling well again, they are much better than they were when they were trounced 5-1 by the Indians in their last one-day series over there.

Things look encouraging, therefore, as they build towards the Ashes next summer and the Test series against India should be very interesting, but the one-day series is going to be tough for them to win, especially as Ryan Sidebottom has been struggling for fitness.

England did, though, beat South Africa 4-0 in a one-day series last summer, so all is not lost, and Kevin Pietersen is an inspirational captain, it seems, leading by example more often than not.

India have rested Sachin Tendulkar for the first few games of the series, but they have plenty of firepower to bring in, notably Yuvraj Singh to bolster the batting line-up. Full of confidence they are going to take an awful lot of beating.

Yuvraj is the third favourite to be India's top runscorer in the series, at 9/2, behind the explosive Virender Sehwag, at 5/2, and Gautam Gambhir, at 3/1. Both the top two in the betting had good Test series, but Sehwag deserves favouritism for the manner of his play.

Behind them, Suresh Raina and captain MS Dhoni are both 11/2 - the captain could well be another one to watch as he can dominate any team - while Rohit Sharma is 8/1.

For England, captain Pietersen, as usual, tops the betting at 2/1, while Ian Bell is a 4/1 chance and Owais Shah is 5/1. Matt Prior and Flintoff are both 6/1, while Paul Collingwood is 15/2 and Alastair Cook is 10/1.

Over seven matches, I would be very surprised to see anything other than a win for the home side, while I expect Yuvraj Singh to come out on top in the betting stakes.