Andrew Strauss: Paul Collingwood needs to refresh his mind
England’s captain, Andrew Strauss has said that Paul Collingwood needs to focus on his batting and refresh his mind. Paul Collingwood is one of the most experienced players of the English side and he has represented England in
number of important matches at International level. However, in recent times, Collingwood has been on the receiving end and his form with the bat has left a huge question mark on his fading career.
During the Ashes series, Paul Collingwood was perhaps the only casualty of the English side as he performed poorly with the bat and scored only 93 runs in the series. As a result, Collingwood took retirement from Test cricket after
the series and it was being speculated that he might be able to deliver in the Twenty20 matches. Despite being the captain of England for the two T20 fixtures against Australia, he failed yet again with the bat, and was dropped for Sunday’s game against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
Andrew Strauss said that Collingwood’s poor performance with the bat is an issue of serious concern. Strauss also admitted that Collingwood’s batting form has been suffering for quite some time. Batsmen play a pivotal role for
any side, and sometimes a batsman’s poor form can become an issue if it prevails for a longer period.
The best example of it would be the case of Kevin Pietersen as he was totally out of form before the Ashes series and was struggling a lot to make some decent runs for his team. Surprisingly, he returned to his best in the Adelaide
Test and scored a brilliant double hundred for his side. Having seen KP coming back to life, one feels that Collingwood also needs one good innings to find his form and deliver what he has been for England throughout his career.
Strauss was of the view that the best way for Collingwood is to spend some time out of the English team and relieve himself from all the pressure. He further said that Collingwood is an important member of the English One day set
up and will definitely be included in the World Cup squad.
It is a bit of a form thing," Strauss said. "We feel that he's been struggling with the bat for a while now.
"The best way for him to come back is to spend a bit of time out of the side and refresh his mind.
"He's still obviously a very important part of our one-day set-up and will be going forward to the World Cup.
"Sometimes you need a clear mind, and you don't want to be thinking too much about the dismissals you've had recently. You just want to be able to go out and see the ball and hit the ball."
Collingwood is considered as an ODI specialist and he has played number of match winning knocks for the English side. Moreover, in the subcontinent, his experience and skill set would serve a handful for England to post a good
total on the board. The English captain was quick to add that Collingwood is a handy medium pace bowler and his bowling services were missed a lot during the first One day of the series against Australia as well.
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