Captain Colly has success in his sights
CAPTAIN Paul Collingwood believes his England side have what it takes to cause an upset and lift the World Twenty20 trophy on home soil.
Colllingwood is looking to become the first England skipper to lift a major international trophy and says his men are in good spirits following their recent one-day success over the West Indies.
England kick-off the 16-day tournament with an opening match against the Netherlands at Lord’s this afternoon, and although the bookies are already writing off their chances of success, Collingwood is confident his side can spring a surprise.
His side are quoted as 10/1 chances to land a first World Cup with South Africa, Australia and defending champions India all fancied. But England’s nine-wicket warm-up thrashing of the West Indies on Wednesday night was enough to convince Collingwood that his side are not to be ruled out.
“Beating West Indies gave everybody a realisation that we can do pretty well,” the Durham all-rounder said. “Having a performance like that does bring a lot of confidence. But we’re not going to get carried away by everything and we know we’re going to have to play to our absolute potential to get to those semi-finals, but there’s a lot of confidence around at the moment and it’s all good. There’s a real feel good factor in the team.”
England are expected to stick with bowling trio James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom with leg-spinner Adil Rashid and all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas likely to be the ones to miss out from the 13.
ICC WORLD TWENTY20 SCHEDULE
GROUP A – India, Bangladesh, Ireland
GROUP B – Pakistan, England, Netherlands
GROUP C – Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
GROUP D – New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland
Group stages – June 5-10
Super Eights – June 11-16
1st semi-final (Trent Bridge) – June 18
2nd semi-final (The Oval) – June 19
Final (Lord’s) – June 21