England need more silverware to achieve greatness, says Moeen Ali

SYDNEY (Reuters): England must win more silverware to be considered a truly great limited-overs team, all-rounder Moeen Ali said, as the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup champions prepare to face India on Thursday in the semi-finals of the latest edition.

England, who also won the 50-overs version three years ago, have failed to hit top gear in Australia and reached the last-four with a scrappy win over Sri Lanka.

“There’s a lot of talk about us being a great white-ball side and the England team has been really good, but we’ve only won one tournament,” Moeen told British media.

“It’s important we start winning more as a team and as a country.

“Then we can call ourselves a top side.”

While England have not been firing on all cylinders at the World Cup, Mooen backed them to peak at the right time.

“We wanted to get to the semis. In the past we’ve played well and got through,” he said.

“This time I don’t think we’ve played well but we’ve got through and the best is yet to come with this side. I don’t think we’ve been near where we want to be but now’s a great opportunity to put that right.

“You always talk about peaking at the right time and if you scrape through it means you can get better. If we play our best cricket in the next two games I believe we win the World Cup.”