Twenty20 / Andrew Hughes / 17 February 2010 /

As Paul Collingwood's men prepare to take on Twenty20 world champions Pakistan in Dubai, Andrew Hughes examines England's sorry record in cricket's youngest and most dynamic format.

English sports fans are used to watching the rest of the world take up the games that we invented and leaving us behind. But the speed with which we have been eclipsed in Twenty20 cricket has been astonishing. In the summer of 2003, the Surrey Lions defeated the Warwickshire Bears to win the first ever professional Twenty20 tournament. Half a decade later, England limped out of the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa, losing four games out of five. From pioneers to duffers in just four years.

The bare facts are not pretty, so if you are of a patriotic disposition, you may wish to skip the next couple of paragraphs. England have played twenty-three Twenty20 internationals and have won just nine. Only one other full member of the ICC has a poorer record and that is Bangladesh. The domestic game doesn't appear any stronger. Somerset and Sussex crashed out of last year's first ever Champions League tournament without causing much of a stir.

Internationally, selection policy appears to have consisted of a tendency to throw names at a team sheet in the desperate hope that something will work. In their twenty-three matches, England have employed forty-four players, four captains, nine wicketkeepers and fourteen different opening partnerships, yet for some reason, have still not given a cap to the domestic game's most destructive Twenty20 player, Graham Napier.

Their first ever Twenty20 international, back in the summer of 2005, featured what was more or less the Test team, albeit in a slightly different order. Despite beating Australia on that occasion, the selectors began to tinker, gradually incorporating more players who had made their name in the domestic Twenty20 Cup, a policy that reached its nadir during the World Twenty20 in 2007. Admirable county pros though they may be, Paul Nixon, Darren Maddy, Jeremy Snape et al were completely out of their depth.

Since then, England have tended not to employ too many Twenty20 specialists. These days, the Twenty20 team is interchangeable with the fifty over team, indeed for this winter's South African tour, only one limited overs squad was announced. This has brought about a slightly improved record, with six wins in their last eleven games, but that does include the embarrassing debacle of defeat to the Netherlands.

England's main failing has been in the batting department. The biggest surprise has been that Kevin Pietersen has not thrived in a format that seems tailor made for him. Despite playing all but three of England's Twenty20 games, he averages just 29.36. Only two batsmen have an average higher than 35. Marcus Trescothick tops the averages, but his strike rate in a game where rapid scoring is all, was disappointing. Eoin Morgan boasts a healthy average of 50.50 but that is based upon one innings of 85 not out in Johannesburg, the highest score by any English batsmen in this format.

There are only a couple of English players who could be said to have done well in international Twenty20 cricket. Ryan Sidebottom has become England's closing bowler, spearing in yorkers to keep the runs down during the death overs. The other success is Graeme Swann, who bowls with guile and gives the ball a fair tweak, making it hard for batsmen to hit him over the top. Both Swann and Sidebottom take their wickets at less than twenty a piece and more importantly for this format, concede runs at not much more than seven an over. But would either of them get into a World Twenty20 XI? It is unlikely.

Unfortunately, England's next challenge in this format is a mighty tricky one. Playing Pakistan is about as severe a test of your Twenty20 credentials as you can get. They may not be able to play at home, they may be missing the explosive Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal, but Pakistan's record in this format is the best around by a distance. They win three of every four Twenty20 games that they play and not surprisingly, they start Friday's Twenty20 game in Dubai as short as [1.79] in the match winners market.

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