Gaji
Graeme Swann will be happy to play the 'granddad' figure in his first match as England captain, next to West Indies at The Oval on Friday.
At 32, Swann is a minimum three years older than any of his charges chosen to take on equally inexpert opponents in two Twenty20 fixtures in the space of three days.
The off-spinner has taken over the captaincy in the absence of the upset Stuart Broad and his deputy Eoin Morgan, both stressed with shoulder problems and improbable to play again for England this year.
Swann will not be completely forsaking his standing as team joker, despite his added responsibility as England seek to build up for next year's defense of the ICC World Twenty20 circlet they won in the Caribbean 16 months ago.
True to type, he said: "I feel like a granddad to some of these boys.
"I've been approximately the block a few more times than these lads, but it's nice to have that bit of knowledge under your belt."
Swann is enormously confident too by the potential of the likes of Jonny Bairstow - fresh from his sparkling international debut next to India in Cardiff in last week's final NatWest Series match - and several others.
"These young guys are coming into a stress situation, but we consider they're good enough to cope with that," he said.
"I'm sure they'll take pleasure in it once they get on to the park and realize what a good time we have as a group. They'll love being a part of it.
"We're very eager about these youngsters. They've been bring up on this format of the game and they're outstanding at it."
England is already eyeing their next World Twenty20 campaign, in Sri Lanka almost accurately 12 months away. "With that Twenty20 'World Cup' being in the sub-continent, I think we're going to have to play a lot of spin bowling over there," Swann added.
"We've got lads like (Danny) Briggs and (Scott) Borthwick coming into this team who are superb young spinners with outstanding records in Twenty20.
"I'm confident they'll do well over the next few days, if they play.
"We've not got many games before Sri Lanka. We're proud world champions, and want to keep hold of that covering so these are vital games for us.
"It's a bit of added stress for me. But I'm going to enjoy that and succeed on it."
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