CAPTAIN Stuart Broad believes England can cover the loss of the recently-retired Kevin Pietersen with their World Twenty20 defence looming large on the horizon. England will begin life after Pietersen, man-of-the-series when they won the Twenty20 title two years ago, in a one-off match against West Indies at Trent Bridge today.
“Kevin is a world-class Twenty20 player so of course it is disappointing that he is not with us, but it’s a great opportunity for someone else to put their hand up and stake a claim for that spot,” said Broad, who will celebrate turning 26 by captaining his country in front of his home crowd.
With just four games to go before Broad’s side fly out to Sri Lanka to defend their world crown in September, there is little time to plug the gap of one of the world’s most feared batsmen.
To do so England will rely on a group of inexperienced batsmen with Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Samit Patel having no more than eight Twenty20 international appearances.
Broad, who with 34 appearances is England’s most capped Twenty20 player, is confident that his young charges can fill the breach though.
“We’ve got an exciting group of players in that changing room and everyone is really excited about getting on that field and doing the job,” he said.
“We have quite a short period of time and a short number of games until that World Cup so you want to make as much use of that as possible when we do get the opportunity.”
Broad admitted he would look to the likes of Eoin Morgan to lead his young batting unit, despite the left-hander’s lack of cricket this summer.
After falling out of favour in the Test side, and with limited opportunities in the one-day series due to the form of openers Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, Morgan has become a forgotten man in the England side. (PA Sport)