Muttiah Muralitharan has insisted that England will struggle to defend their World Twenty20 title without Kevin Pietersen.

Pietersen's international future remains in doubt after a number of incidents regarding his relationship with the ECB surfaced this summer and Muralitharan believes that the batsman's absence is a big problem for Stuart Broad's side.

The former Sri Lanka spinner told the Daily Mail: "England have a good side but conditions won't favour them much in Sri Lanka, especially the wickets. They will miss Kevin Pietersen because of his experience in this part of the world, he is a good player of spin.

"They could do well but I'm not really sure because they'll miss Pietersen in the batting lineup. I've played against him in the IPL. He played well last year."

England continued their preparations for the tournament by beating Australia in a warm-up match in Colombo.