England’s Paul Collingwood sets sights on ICC World Cup amid intense form scrutiny
England’s middle-order batsman Paul Collingwood wants to fix his lean trot with the bat and make a significant contribution to his team’s chances in the ICC World Cup, 2011 tournament.
The mega event starts this weekend with the opening match at Dhaka between India and Bangladesh.
Collingwood has been in woeful form in recent months; he quit the longest format of the game after the Ashes triumph in Australia where he failed to make an impression with the bat.
He stated at that time that he was keen on playing in the shorter formats of the game and hopes to contribute to his team’s cause; especially since he captains the T20 team and is considered a vital cog in the ODI set-up also.
He reiterated his position again as he arrived in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
Collingwood claimed that there was no extra pressure on him as he prepares for the tournament. He thinks that England have a good chance of breaking their jinx of having not won the tournament even once, despite hosting it four times and the regular appearances in the finals in the first five editions.
He hopes to play an important role with the bat and guide the rest of the batsmen in tricky situations.
“I just have to focus on the white ball now and I want to take my game in one-dayers and Twenty20 to the next level. I would like to draw a line under whatever has happened in the last few months. It is not the twilight of my career and I've had four bad patches in the last decade. Some would say it's a lot and some would say it wasn't too many,” he said.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Durham-c782 all-rounder would be looking to overturn his poor form by batting consistently over long periods of time in the World Cup; he has been struggling to hit boundaries as well as rotating the strike whenever he has been in the middle.
The historic triumph in the Ashes brought little personal joy for him as he was the only top order batsman who failed to make a hundred in the five appearances he made in the series. In the subsequent ODI series against Australia, he hardly fared any better amassing a paltry tally of 53 runs in four matches before pulling away from the contest.
The reason for his withdrawal was the persistent back problems at the last half of the arduous tour that was very draining for most players who played in both formats of the game.
It is not yet known if he would make an immediate return in the warm-up games but he is confident of returning to form as he has done in the past.
“I didn't have a tour I wanted in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 from a personal point of view but it has happened before and I have bounced back. I took consecutive man-of-the-match awards [at the Champions Trophy] so it can all change,” said the hopeful 34-year old.
The World Cup is set to be the swansong for Collingwood especially if he fails to recapture his touch, the all-rounder has to hit his straps immediately and brush off the disappointments that hogged him throughout the Australian tour.
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