England can stun Pak in Dubai T20 series: Graham Thorpe

England’s batting coach and former middle order batsman Graham Thorpe has said that his team has the ability to stun the World Twenty20 champions Pakistan in the next week’s two match T20 series.

Thorpe, who has played 100 Test matches for his country, said the English squad led by Paul Collingwood must take notes from Pakistan’s victory in the ICC World T20 championship, which was held in England last year.

“Pakistan won (the ICC World Twenty20) in England and they won it with some dynamic cricket and some highly-skilled players executing those skills very well. There is a lesson to be learnt from that,” Thorpe said.

“You need to play with freedom and you need to throw caution to the wind sometimes but there is a technique and a way of doing that as well and that’s a route the England players are trying to go down,” he added.

The two T20 matches, which are to be played in Dubai on February 19 and 20, are the last T20 encounters between the two sides before the next ICC World Twenty20 Championship in the Caribbean in April.

Thorpe said his team has plenty of talented players, but they will have to improve the execution of their skills in order to see England improve its record in the slam bang version of the game.

“To be fair, we’ve been close in Twenty20 cricket and to actually get to a final would be great. I think England have the players but they need to execute better in those pressure situations,” The Dawn quoted Thorpe, as saying.