Barry big favourite to captain England against Ghana

In a month where the England captaincy has hogged the headlines, the topic is set to take centre stage again for the Wembley friendly with Ghana.

Fabio Capello’s decision to allow five of his senior players to leave the squad means that a much-changed team will take to the pitch against Ghana in comparison to that which beat Wales 2-0 in the Euro 2012 qualifier.

One of those to be given some rest time is new captain John Terry, meaning that Capello will be forced into naming another skipper against Ghana.

Gareth Barry is the 1/3 favourite the football betting to be given the honour to lead out his country for the one game and it is hard to argue against anybody else being handed the role.

Barry was given the armband for the closing stages of the friendly victory over Denmark in February and is the most experienced England international remaining in the squad with 45 caps to his name.

Of the other players in the squad, the main two challengers to Barry for the captaincy are likely to be Scott Parker and Joe Hart.

Parker is 5/1 to be named captain against Ghana in the England specials market, but the big question mark over him is that there is no guarantee he will start at Wembley.

Capello has hinted that he will make 11 changes from the team that faced Wales, which would mean that Parker would have to be content with a place on the bench.

If Capello did change his entire team Hart would also step down to be replaced by Robert Green.

However, it may be wise to assume that if Capello was planning on giving Hart the game off, then it would have made sense to have allowed him to also leave the squad, with Scott Carson providing back-up to Green.

Therefore, Hart may be in line to start and if he does 14/1 seems a big price on him captaining England against Ghana, bearing in mind that he is expected to be around the England squad for the next decade.

A £20 stake on Hart being named England captain against Ghana would return £280. New customers can sign up here to take advantage of free bets totalling up to £60.