Colly banking on experience

England one-day captain Paul Collingwood © Getty Images

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England captain Paul Collingwood will head to the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa next month confident his side’s greater experience of the format will give them an edge.

England are in Group B with Australia and Zimbabwe in the inaugural tournament and the Durham all-rounder, who is spearheading a change of approach to the limited overs game as one-day captain, believes his players will benefit from having played the 20-over game longer than anyone else.

With that in mind selectors have picked a number of proven Twenty20 specialists.

“Hopefully it gives us a little bit of an edge,” said Collingwood.

“I guess that’s the thought process of choosing the likes of Jeremy Snape, James Kirtley, Darren Maddy, Chris Schofield - domestically they’ve all done very well at Twenty20 in England.

“They’re experienced guys and bring a few pointers of what’s needed in Twenty20 to the whole squad. Luke Wright from Sussex is another one who’s had great success at this form of the game.

“We’re a blend of both the one-day game and the Twenty20 specialists so hopefully that gives us a little bit of an edge - but being the first World Twenty20 no-one really knows who’s the favourite and what tactics to use, so it’s going to be interesting.

“The side that wins will probably be the side that thinks the best during the whole competition.

“From a captain’s point of view it can be a very difficult game for field-placing because there’s shots played that you’ve never seen before and are very hard to set fields to.

“I think boundaries in Twenty20 cricket are becoming non-existent. People are just taking the fielders on. It doesn’t matter where they are.”

Stuart Broad and Ravi Bopara - both in the Twenty20 squad - grabbed their chance to impress at Old Trafford last night as England went 3-1 up in the NatWest Series with a three-wicket win over India.

However, Collingwood is not taking anything for granted in the one-day series with three more matches - at Headingley Carnegie, the Brit Oval and Lord’s - still to play before they set off for South Africa.

“We want to finish the series well and win the series - we haven’t done that yet,” he warned.

Collingwood is concentrating on the current series

“But the way we’ve played so far is very encouraging. Hopefully we can keep that momentum going into the World Twenty20.

“We’ve got a great buzz about the boys at the minute. A lot of hard work is being put in behind the scenes and there’s a great atmosphere.

"As long as we keep along that vein, keep working hard and keep enjoying our cricket - which is what we’re doing - we’ll take a lot of confidence into this World Cup.”

And Collingwood believes playing cricket right up until flying out for the tournament could be another thing in his team’s favour.

“Our skills should be pretty up-to-date,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll take a lot of confidence from the one-day series into the Twenty20 so that’ll be fresh as well.

“It could be an advantage.”