Pakistan are dangerous - Collingwood

Paul Collingwood, England's captain for the Twenty20 series against Pakistan, has warned against underestimating his team's opposition, despite their woeful tour of Australia during which they failed to secure a single win.

"I think Pakistan are dangerous, it's as simple as that," he said. "Whenever you come and play against Pakistan they're a difficult side to beat. I guess sometimes you're unsure of what you're going to come up against but we're really going to concentrate on what we have to do this week. We've got a lot of confidence at the moment but we don't want to just sit back and rely on the confidence, we've got to do some hard yards before the games on Friday and Saturday.

"Pakistan are a very strong Twenty20 side and we're going to have to be right on our game to beat them. It might be a good time to play them, but you never quite know what you're going to get on the day so I think we've just got to concentrate on our own game and see what we get on the day."

The two matches at Dubai provide an international warm-up ahead of England's trip to Bangladesh, and they will also be an opportunity for England to get some vital match practice with the World Twenty20 tournament in West Indies less then two months away.

"It's good to have these two games before the world cup to see exactly where we are in terms of team selection and squad selection. The important thing this week is to get a few wins under our belt and that would give us great confidence going in to the world cup.

Collingwood, who has played in all but one of England's Twenty20 internationals since 2005, captaining the side to eight victories in 17 games at the helm, was confident that England are approaching a watershed as a one-day and twenty20 outfit and are a vastly improved side since the last World Twenty20 tournament.

"I'm excited because certainly with our batting line up we seem to be getting stronger and stronger with every one-day game we're playing and the confidence that we're building all the time. There are some important players among us already who can take the game away from the opposition. You need as many match-winners in your side as possible and I think we really are starting to get a lot of them."