Our plodders needs some Indian spice to acquire a taste for Twenty20

It's still called Twenty20, but the likes of South Africa, India and Sri Lanka appear to be playing a completely different game and there seems little chance of England catching up any time soon.

When Plan A works, as it did against Pakistan last weekend, Paul Collingwood's team look just fine. But once things start going wrong - as they did from the first over of last night's seven-wicket thrashing by South Africa - there appears to be no alternative course of action beyond hoping that Kevin Pietersen rides to the rescue with a match-winning innings.

A side needs to have more than one batting saviour in the middle order and beyond, but potential heroes are thin on the ground for England when the pressure is mounting and fast bowlers are mixing 90 mph yorkers with back of the hand slower balls.

So why are England already lagging behind in a form of the game which they invented only a few years ago? There is no need to look much further than the Indian Premier League - or beyond Jacques Kallis to find an example of how that tournament can teach an old dog new tricks.

Two years ago, Kallis was left out of the World Twenty20 squad because the South Africa selectors decided one of the world's best Test batsmen would not be able to adapt his essentially solid game to crash, bang, wallop cricket. But now, at the age of nearly 34, all-rounder Kallis is back on board, and going great guns with bat and ball, after a successful IPL campaign with the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

He did not need to rush last night but still scored an unbeaten 58 from 49 deliveries, having shown earlier in this tournament that the accelerator could be stamped on when necessary.

India, South Africa and Sri Lanka - the three favourites for the World Twenty20 - all have squads packed with players who have appeared in the IPL and not only learned to adapt their games but also to perform when the heat is on and they are facing one top class opponent after another.

England's best players, of course, missed the IPL boat in 2008 and had only the tiniest taste of it two months ago.

As many as possible of them need to be there for the full stint in 2010 if we are to take Twenty20 seriously.

For the moment, though, Plan A will have to do against India at Lord's on Sunday. Given the chance, England must bowl first - because there is not too much wrong with that department - and then go for broke with the bat.