Strauss safe as England ODI captain
Paul Collingwood’s success in leading England to their first ICC trophy at the World Twenty20 has triggered questions about Andrew Strauss’ role as the side’s ODI captain. But it is speculation Collingwood himself has been quick to douse.
Collingwood, who just over a year ago accepted the Twenty20 captaincy in the absence of too many other likely candidates just nine months after stepping down as England’s ODI skipper, now finds himself fielding questions about whether he might like another crack at the job.
"Andrew Strauss is obviously our captain in the one-day format and in the Test format,” Collingwood told reporters on returning to England after his side’s seven-wicket victory over Australia in the final of the Caribbean competition. "There's no pressure on him [Strauss] coming back in.
“You can give him a lot of credit for what we've achieved, for the team ethos him and [team director] Andy Flower have built up.
"This was solely my job as Twenty20 captain, to go out and win the World Cup, which is exactly what we've done.”
While you’d suspect Flower has ensured everyone in the England squad is well aware of his role in the side, and that includes both Collingwood and Strauss, Collingwood’s success with the Twenty20 side has stirred not-so-distant memories of Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain attempting to share the ODI and Test captaincy of the side.
Hussain was reported to have said that it didn’t feel like his dressing room after Vaughan took over the captaincy of the ODI side after the 2003 World Cup. Three months later, Vaughan was both ODI and Test skipper of England.
Aside from the stability Flower has helped instil in the England leadership group, the difference this time around is that Collingwood doesn’t have designs on extending his domain beyond the shortest form of the game.
If we’re to be honest about it, the 33-year-old was a reluctant starter as Twenty20 skipper at the time, but with Kevin Pietersen apparently showing no inclination of assuming the Twenty20 captaincy so soon after his tumultuous exit as England skipper at the beginning of 2009, and Andrew Flintoff injured in the lead-up to last year’s World Twenty20, Collingwood took on the responsibility for the job.
A touch over 12-months later and he’s entered the history books as the captain of England’s first ICC trophy-winning side.
Strauss, however, is an Ashes winning captain at Test level and as England skipper has rejuvenated his ODI career after two years out of the 50-over team.
The pressure on Strauss’ ODI role, if any, doesn’t come from Collingwood but rather from young opener Craig Kieswetter, who chose the World Twenty20 final to deliver his best innings of the tournament and earlier in the year filled the hole at the top of England’s ODI batting card left by Strauss’ absence as the regular skipper was rested for the tour of Bangladesh.
The hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman took just three matches against Bangladesh, and in his ODI career, to notch his first century in the 50-over format. Strauss hasn’t managed an ODI ton since March 2009.
We’re talking hypothetically now, but if Strauss – who has missed a lot of international cricket this year – returns to England’s ODI team for their series against Australia in June/July and fails to make an impact with the bat for, say, the first three of the five matches a compelling case could surely be mounted for Kieswetter’s inclusion in the playing XI.
Then again, the Somerset batsman may have already booked his place alongside Strauss as ODI opener as England look to establish a regular opening partnership in this form of the game, something that has eluded them of late with Jonathan Trott and Joe Denly among those to have tried their hand at the role in the past 12 months.
Strauss remains safe as both ODI captain and opener at least for now, but the by-product of a successful 12-month period for England is that not even the skipper can afford to take his place in the side for granted.
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