Tag Ind-Eng-ODI-2011

Not just in cricket or sport but in life in general, we all aspire to lead the pack we live in, hoping to set new examples. Sadly, not all of us have the leader aka man manager in us, an ability a cricketer must have besides bat & ball skills to be able to captain his team..

Stuart Broad was surprize pick as England selectors announced three captains for all three formats, specially when they won World T20 2010 under Paul Collingwood, ignoring other potential candidates like Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann. Now, having lost his captainship debut, a one off t20 game against Sri Lanka, Stuart Broad is up with a challenge to prove himself. The thing going for him this time is that he's coming off superb spells in test series, opposite to dismal performances he's had against Lankans. Broad knows it and he's willing to improve.

"We didn't perform as well as we'd have liked against Sri Lanka,” says Broad. “We didn't get enough runs on the board; we don't need to look too much further into it. It's difficult in these one-off games but it's important we take these opportunities. We want to start tomorrow really strongly, whether we bat or bowl first. There'll be a full house at Old Trafford and (India) are a fantastic Twenty20 side, so we've got to be on the money."

"You've got the 50-over world champions and the Twenty20 world champions going at each other. It's going to be an exciting game and the players are really looking forward to it."

Broad is also exited with the young talent he's been given, probably the ones he'll be taking to Sri Lanka in an year's time to defend England's World T20 tag. England have named new faces Alex Hales, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes in their T20 squad.

"They're exciting talents, they've had great domestic Twenty20 seasons and they performed well today. It's exciting to have them around," said Broad. "I know it is a huge test for any player to come up from county cricket into international cricket. That's why we have the Lions system to put guys under international pressure."

"You see guys have that confidence in T20 cricket and come to international games and do really well. We're certainly not picking players blindly. We're excited for tomorrow."

The talented trio are so young that their captain himself has never seen them play but does it really matter? "I've seen them on television in the hotels when travelling around, so I am well aware of what they can do," admits Broad.

"What has shone about Jos Buttler is he can calmly flick the ball over the keeper's head and next ball hit it straight 20 rows back. He showed his talent on finals day.

"Stokesy is a strong guy, a big hitter of the ball. He certainly showed his power in training today, while I know Alex well from Notts.

"He's a tall guy, 6ft 5in, and strikes the ball hard. He has an extremely high strike rate in the Twenty20 format and he's done really well in red-ball and white-ball cricket. He's an exciting talent."