Colly showed his limitations
AT THE CREASE WITH
ANDY LLOYD
THE British summertime might have conspired against England in Monday night’s World Twenty20 elimination against the West Indies, but the truth is that, over the whole tournament, Paul Collingwood’s men did not deserve to go beyond the Super Eights stage.
Let’s face it: they were beaten by Holland and played very ordinarily in losing to South Africa.
SERIOUS QUESTIONS
Too often they failed to maintain a good start, with opener Ravi Bopara and the dependable Kevin Pietersen the only batsmen to impress.
Bopara is one of the more positive stories as the Ashes series looms; he’s getting runs in all forms of cricket.
Graeme Swann, too, has really come on in the last 12 months and I expect him to have a major role to play in the Ashes.
If England have improved at all at Twenty20 it’s because of better personnel, and serious questions remain over Collingwood’s captaincy.
A lot of people doubt his skills as a skipper and these games have shown his limitations. He didn’t make good bowling changes throughout – Adil Rashid deserved a longer spell against the Windies, for instance.
Having said that, there was little England could do in that match, after the rain fell and restricted the Windies innings to nine overs.
Now we know the last four I fancy Sri Lanka to lift the trophy. They have destructive hitters and two mysterious slow bowlers in Muralitharan and Mendis.