England have a better side now than the one which won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010 according to former captain Paul Collingwood.
The 39-year-old, who remains the only England skipper to win an ICC global tournament – albeit possibly only until Sunday – believes the current squad are braver, bolder and better than the one he led to glory in the competition six years ago.
Now the team’s batting and fielding coach, Collingwood was impressed with what he saw during the semi-final demolition of New Zealand in New Delhi which set up a final against West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday.
“In the past our line-up probably had one or two players that were real match-winners, this team is full of match-winners,” said Collingwood.
The Windies beat England in their first group game, but Collingwood clearly has no doubts that a reversal is possible.
“You see them coming through the ranks now and they’re taking the game to a different level to what it ever has been in England,” he continued.
“These guys are mentally different to what we used to be. ‘Who dares wins’ is pretty much the motto.
“We probably would think, ‘this is a big game’ and pull back a little bit. It seems to be the other way round for these guys, they seem to thrive on the excitement of the big stage.
“They want to put the other team under pressure as early as possible and that’s the best way to go about it.
“On the odd time it might not work but you’ll win things, big tournaments, by having an aggressive approach rather than a conservative one.”
Asked whether his side – which contained stars such as Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad – could overpower Eoin Morgan’s current crop, he replied: “They’re a lot more powerful as a batting line-up than we were. I’ve got no problem admitting it.
“The game has moved forward at a ridiculous rate. But in our era we were good enough to win it and hopefully this era’s England team is good enough to be a step ahead of the rest, exactly like we were.”
Source: ECB