ICC World Twenty20: Paul Farbrace says England have to improve

Paul Farbrace says England have to improve quickly if they are going to win the World Twenty20.

England's assistant coach says the team bowled badly against the West Indies and South Africa, and the batsmen flopped in Wednesday's huge scare against Afghanistan.

England beat the tournament minnows by 15 runs, having been in serious trouble on 57-6 at one point.

Farbrace guided England's next opponents - Sri Lanka - to the title two years ago, and victory over them should be enough to book them a semi-final place.

"We know there are areas to improve on, we're not going to hide," Farbrace said after a 15-run win over the rapidly improving Afghans.

"We're not shirking away from any performance. We've been honest, we didn't get it right with the ball in the first two games and we didn't bat well in the first 10 overs of the Afghanistan game.

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"We were very disappointed with the way that we batted. We didn't adapt  We didn't work out that the ball was skidding on and not turning. A lot played for turn that wasn't there.

"And the Afghan bowlers bowled the ball in the right way in the right places. They bowled wicket to wicket and encouraged us to hit across the ball, which we did and we lost wickets.

"There would certainly have been a decent discussion at the end of the game...

"There's no fudging it - we've only played half a game again, but we have won which is the most important thing.

"We've put ourselves in the position where if we play well against Sri Lanka and we're able to win the game, we give ourselves a good chance of going through to the next stage.

"Then you've got to play well in the knock-out stages to win the competition. I've said many times that this team is an inexperienced team that needs to learn and develop, but we've got to win.

"That, for me, is the key thing. We're trying to learn, we're trying to develop, whilst winning at the same time."