Stuart Broad confident in his latest new captain

Stuart Broad is confident that Alastair Cook is ready to withstand the pressures of the England captaincy, as the build-up begins ahead of the first ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur. Cook inherited the role when Andrew Strauss opted out of the tour following an arduous series in South Africa, despite not having featured in a 50-over contest since November 2008. But Broad is confident that the new leader will rise above all the obstacles that are placed in his way.

"Alastair has taken over with a lot of confidence and slotted into the regime very well," said Broad. "He's worked well over the past year and is enjoying the responsibility - and the players are enjoying it. I'm sure he'll be nervous on Sunday but everyone's behind him and doing their best to help him. We've had some really good preparation, we've got used to the conditions and we're looking forward to Sunday."

At the age of 25, Cook is perceived in some quarters as too inexperienced for such a high-profile role, and Bangladesh's coach, Jamie Siddons, ramped up the pressure on Friday by saying he hoped that the decision to rest Strauss would come back to "bite him on the bum". But Broad insisted that the entire squad was rallying behind the stand-in skipper, and had no doubts about his aptitude for the role.

"Cooky's captained all through the age groups and is quite experienced in the captaincy role, and I'm looking forward to playing under him," said Broad. "We're trying to push him to the front of the bus because that's where the captain sits, but he still sits at the back of the bus and gets involved in the banter. He'll always be a nice bloke. Being captain doesn't change you in any way because you've still got to socialise with the lads."

Regardless of who is in charge - and Broad has had a fair range of leaders in his international career, including Michael Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood - there's only one player who really matters when a bowler is stood at the top of his mark. "You rely a lot on yourself as you are the one who's got to deliver the ball, but it's going to be a good challenge for Cooky," said Broad. "The team are looking forward to it, and are ready to get back into international cricket."

Although England's immediate thoughts are drifting towards the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean in April and May, their long-term aspirations are focussed every bit as intently on the 2011 World Cup, which takes place in the subcontinent in exactly 12 months' time. Among England's challenges will be a group stage contest with Bangladesh in Chittagong, and Broad knows that the coming three matches could be their last chance for subcontinental practice before the tournament gets underway.

"I think there are 20 ODIs before the next World Cup and we need to be together for the majority of that to be able to grow and bond and figure out players' roles," he said. "It's always a learning experience and you have to bowl very differently to how you do in England. Line and length can sometimes be predictable over here, and batsmen can line you up. I think slower balls work really well over here."

Although England were routed 5-0 on their tour of India in November 2008, they do have some happy memories of the subcontinent to fall back on, and their impressive victory in Sri Lanka in 2007 is one of Broad's earliest memories as an international cricketer.

"I had some notes that I looked up from [that] tour," said Broad. "I had quite a successful tour over there and I wrote a few things down - using slower balls at certain times of an over as the lack of pace on it made hitting a boundary more difficult - and that's something I'll be looking to use over here. At my age I came to the conclusion I'll have the chance to tour these places again. If I have a few things to look at in the future, it will be useful to see if I did well or badly in a certain place.

"I think everyone will learn a lot from this tour," he added. "No-one in the England camp thinks this is going to be a walk-over. We need to perform well as you do in every international to win. We need to continue the momentum we got from beating South Africa in South Africa. If we don't there's no point in being here, because we need to come here and win."