England need IPL experience - Harmison

	Steve Harmison said England's players are suffering due to a lack of Twenty20 exposure © Getty Images

Steve Harmison has said that England will be left behind if players aren't able to join the IPL and gain more Twenty20 experience.

A number of leading stars, including Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, are eyeing up IPL deals, but are likely to only have a small window between the end of the West Indies tour and the start of the English home season.

England are hosting the Twenty20 World Championships in June and Harmison said that players from other countries have a huge advantage because of their time in the IPL.

"If our guys do not play in the IPL next spring, on June 5, England will begin the premier high-profile cricket tournament of the year, in our own country, having played just three Twenty20 international matches in the previous 12 months," Harmison told the Mail on Sunday. "What is more, because our domestic Twenty20 runs parallel to our one-day series in England, most of us have hardly played any of that, either.

"Players from all other countries who do take part in the IPL will have played many times that number of matches of equivalent standard. If what has happened here [in India] so far is anything to go by, the difference in experience could prove crucial."

Harmison said Twenty20 is having a huge influence on one-day internationals, and cited India's explosive batting in the current series as evidence that skills are overlapping the two formats.

"Batsmen are no longer content to look for 260-275 as par scores, and are now looking for a minimum of 290-300 every time," he said. "The Indians have performed with Twenty20 intensity over the full 50 overs and it has been very impressive to watch.

"And I don't think it is any coincidence that, as a group of players, we have been lacking in some of those skills and disciplines. It is one thing to try to practise them on the outfield but there is no substitute for experience."