Hussain's England have plenty to prove (Allsport).

By Myles Hodgson, PA Sport Cricket Correspondent

Nasser Hussain will lead England into the World Cup fuelled perhaps like no other captain with the desire to finally silence the doubters.

Virtually none of his 13 counterparts at the event has had to justify his own selection to the extent Hussain has, and that is what fans his desire for personal and team success.

Critics claim he has too limited a range of strokeplay and fails to improvise sufficiently to warrant his selection, particularly at number three where he has been required to take advantage of the first 15 overs of fielding restrictions.

It has led to Hussain trying to make his point to his critics on more than one occasion, most recently when he scored his maiden one-day international century in his 72nd appearance against India at Lord's and gestured angrily towards the media centre.

It was the act of a man frustrated by the almost constant campaign to move him down the order and allow more free-hitting batsmen like Andrew Flintoff to occupy his role. He has consistently scored runs at number three throughout his captaincy but has this winter allowed his Essex team-mate Ronnie Irani to occupy the position for England.

The petulant display, which he later admitted was aimed at "one or two former players who have been getting on my back," was also a throwback to his formative years as a cricketer when he gained a reputation as a bit of a hot-head.

It led to his expulsion from the England reckoning for three long years, during which time he consulted Essex coach Keith Fletcher and senior professional Graham Gooch and matured both as a cricketer and individual.

Instead of using his aggression on the field or in the dressing room - several doors were damaged by the Hussain temper during this period - he chose to take Fletcher and Gooch's advice.

As a result, Hussain developed both on and off the pitch to such an extent that he was chosen as captain of the England A team to tour Pakistan in 1995-6 - and his performance in trying circumstances on that tour paved the way for his eventual appointment as the full England captain.

The strain of constantly attempting to prove himself, though, has sometimes affected his captaincy - he was out-thought by Indian counterpart Sourav Ganguly during the triangular tournament last summer - yet he remains the most innovative and inspirational captain England have at their disposal.

His mere presence lifts the team, particularly one which fields a consistently inexperienced line-up - while he is renowned as one of the best fielders in world cricket within the ring.

The challenge which awaits him now is to end the constant speculation about his own role and galvanise a squad which is yet to perform consistently under the present regime into a team capable of challenging for the World Cup.

He has already indicated this winter could be his last but is fortunate England's two toughest matches in their qualifying group - against India and reigning world champions Australia - are at the end of the first stage. By then they will have hoped to claim maximum points from their encounters with Zimbabwe, Namibia, Holland and Pakistan, whose performances can be equally inconsistent.

How Hussain performs, on and off the pitch, when he is going to have to cope with the pressures of leading England into a major tournament for the first time, will be crucial to their hopes of success just as much as the number of runs scored by prolific opener Marcus Trescothick or the number of wickets claimed by a mish-mash attack.

Young players like Paul Collingwood will look to Hussain for guidance when times get tough, while opposition teams will certainly target him as England's captain.

He will be expecting that, just as he has in every other Test series since he took over the captaincy in 1999. But this time there is a different prize on offer - the prospect of becoming the first England captain ever to lift the World Cup.