India had a horrible day on Tuesday against England. I don’t know what got into them — maybe they were a little bit jaded after a long time in Australia.

It was a pretty good track that had a little pace and bounce and England do have some pretty good fast bowlers, but with that batting side it just wasn’t good enough. It’s one of those games you have to have just to get you back on track and push you into action.

I feel India prefer to chase rather than set the target, but maybe they looked at the surface and thought that it’s not going to get any better, that batting under lights may be a bit more difficult and so decided to bat first. Maybe they’ll change their thinking going into the latter games, depending on the surface.

I was very impressed with England, though. When they are at their best they are very hard to beat. It’s just that sometimes finding their best form eludes them, particularly in the big tournaments.

They arguably played their best side against India, with Ian Bell doing a good job opening the batting. James Anderson coming into the attack makes a hell of a difference and his performance (4/18) was just extraordinary. Steven Finn got all the headlines in Australia for his five-for but, really, Anderson led the way and was fantastic as usual. If they hold this form, they will be a dangerous side in the World Cup.

England take on Australia on Friday and this very convincing win will have them looking to improve on their performance. Another good one-day pitch awaits them at Hobart, which is a high-scoring ground. It has a little pace and bounce, it’s good to bat on, the boundaries are quite short — depending on which side of the pitch they play on — so both sides should enjoy playing there.

Australia, of course, go in with a bit of a depleted side, what with David Warner being rested, Bailey suspended for slow over-rate and Mitchell Johnson staying away for personal reasons. But, with two good wins under their belt, it’s an opportunity to try a few new faces.

However, slow over-rate is an issue Australia have to deal with. The other is the aggression.

Australia always tend to play an aggressive sort of cricket, but obviously there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed and, of late, few of our boys have over-stepped the mark a bit and need to bring it back.

We aren’t talking about choirboys here and both India and Australia have been having a go at each other over the past couple of months, but you don’t want these things going as public as they are. I’ve heard talk about perhaps having a yellow/red card system like they do in soccer. This might be just the trick to keep tempers from flaring up too much, too often.

— Gameplan