Pietersen has high hopes

The 30-year-old believes England have a good chance of winning the ODI tournament if they can overcome hosts Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

"It's going to be difficult beating the sub-continent teams on the sub-continent," he said.

"That's going to be our biggest worry, along with playing spin there, but with the mindset the guys have from winning a trophy away from England, we can take that across to India and I do think that we have a very good chance of winning it."

England have undergone a radical transformation in the shorter form of the game since last summer when they suffered a humiliating 6-1 one-day series defeat on home turf against Australia.

A semi-final appearance in the Champions Trophy was followed up by victory in the ICC World Twenty20 in Caribbean, before Andrew Strauss led his side to a 3-2 victory over Australia in this summer's one-day international series and a 2-1 win against Bangladesh.

Much of England's resurgence has been thanks to the introduction of enterprising batsmen like Eoin Morgan and Craig Kieswetter, while captain Strauss has also developed an aggressive streak that had previously been absent from his one-day game.

Pietersen claims the aggression England have displayed since last year's trouncing against Australia is the reason why the team have been so successful. "It's one thing talking about being positive and it's another actually going out there and doing it," the former Nottinghamshire man said.

"I think over the last 10 or 12 months the boys have really gone out there and put it into practice - that's something they haven't done enough over the last however many years.

"There are certain players who have gone out there and have been positive but you need a core of players to make a good team. That's what we have now and that's why we're getting good results."