Darren Gough "worried" as England prepare to start quest to win Champions Trophy

“I look at England and I'm a little bit worried,” said Gough, who was speaking in his role as a new ambassador for betting firm Ladbrokes.

“They've lost Jacob Bethell; he's going to be out, and they've brought in Tom Banton, who has been playing most of his stuff in franchise cricket this winter. Looking on paper, for England, it just lacks a little bit of balance, it really does.

“But, in terms of this opening match, look at the players still in this England squad who have proven they can do it at this level - Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid.

“They've got the talent, but can they do it consistently? That’s the biggest question when it comes to England.

“Coming up against India before this tournament probably wasn't the most ideal team to play against, because they're the ultimate team. But, against Australia, I think England might just win that game."

Gough, the former Yorkshire and England fast bowler, thinks Australia are vulnerable if maybe not quite there for the taking. The 50-over world champions are without injured fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, along with Mitchell Starc due to personal reasons.

Mitchell Marsh, the all-rounder, is also injured, while fellow all-rounder Marcus Stoinos retired on the eve of the tournament - “a strange one”, according to Gough. In Cummins’s absence, Australia will be led by Steve Smith.

“Australia are without their first-choice seam attack of Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins and that's going to be a huge loss for them to have to deal with,” said Gough. “Then you've got their all-rounder, Marcus Stoinis, who retired just two weeks before the tournament started.

“They've still got strong batting - people like Glenn Maxwell and Marnus Labuschagne in the middle order, and a lot of youngsters in there. But I’m going to go for an England win.”

Gough, who left his job as Yorkshire’s managing director of cricket last March, said it was difficult to look beyond India as tournament winners.

The favourites started their campaign on Thursday with a six-wicket victory against Bangladesh in Dubai, where a five-wicket haul from Mohammed Shami, followed by an unbeaten hundred from Shubman Gill, underpinned success.

“If I had to pick a winning team I think I would go for the favourites, India, purely because they've got just about everything,” added Gough.

“They've got experience in Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja - that’s serious experience in your starting eleven.

“Then they've got the stardust players, the likes of Rishabh Pant, who couldn't get in the starting eleven against England, but what a player he is. Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, who has come into the squad, and Shubman Gill.

"These are all wonderful players to watch, and then they've got the spin of Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Varun Chakravarthy.

“They've got a bit of everything in there. Arshdeep Singh is the left-arm seamer as well, who’ll give them a bit of difference if they wanted to go with that. I just find it hard to look past them.

“If I was to go for a surprise team, with the conditions, I would go with Afghanistan.

"I think they surprised everyone at the World Cup a couple of years ago, and being in the easier group of England, South Africa and Australia, they might just surprise everyone once again and do the business.”

England meet Afghanistan in Lahore in their second game on Wednesday, a fixture mired in controversy following rejected calls for England to boycott the match in protest at the Taliban’s treatment of women.

Their third and final group fixture is against South Africa in Karachi on March 1.

The top two teams in each four-strong group advance to the semi-finals on March 4/5, with the final on March 9.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​