England T20 Vision Intact After KP Exit

Nottingham: England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad is confident his side can mount a successful defence of their World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka this year despite the absence of Kevin Pietersen.

Star batsman Pietersen, man of the tournament when England won the World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean two years ago, recently quit all limited overs internationals after officials refused his request to carry on playing Twenty20s while opting out of 50-over one-day games.

England play their first Twenty20 match since South Africa-born Pietersen's one-day retirement when they face the West Indies at Nottinghamshire seamer Broad's Trent Bridge home ground on Sunday.

England will now look to a group of inexperienced batsmen to cover the gap left by Pietersen's absence, with the likes of Alex Hales, Jonathan 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, added: "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."

Sunday's fixture will be one of just four Twenty20s England play before they head to Sri Lanka to begin the defence of their title in September.

On otherhand, for Windies Kieron Pollard returns to Trent Bridge, the ground where he made a sparkling 47 from 25 balls last season as Somerset beat Nottinghamshire to reach the Friends Life t20 finals day. Pollard, who hit his first T20I half-century against Australia in March, looked in reasonable touch during his 41 in the second ODI at The Oval and, after Gayle, is West Indies' most dangerous hitter.

Teams from

England: Stuard Broad (captain), Jonathan Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler (wk), Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craigg Kieswetter (wk), Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Chris Woakes.

West Indies: Darren Sammy (captain), Fidel Edwards, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Marlon Samuels, Tino Best, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith

Pitch and conditions
Trent Bridge usually produces a belter for T20s, a hard, flat deck that will promote big hitting - exactly what West Indies need. The only caveat is the weather, which certainly affected the preparation of the Test match surface that proved slow and low with little movement on offer.

Stats and trivia

• In seven T20Is against England, West Indies have won five and lost two - the country they have beaten most often. They have never beaten New Zealand, Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe.
• In the teams' last meeting, West Indies defended the second lowest total - 113 - in a T20 international. The lowest successfully defended score was made against West Indies: 105 by Zimbabwe at Port-of-Spain.
• England will be without the second highest run-scorer in T20 internationals for the first time. KP's 1,176 runs are only bettered by Brendan McCullum's 1,352.

Match facts
Sunday June 24, 2012
Start time 1430 local (1330 GMT)