Collingwood insists England are '˜full of match-winners'

Paul Collingwood rates England's World Twenty20 finalists as braver, bolder and better than the squad he led to glory in the competition six years ago.
England captain Paul Collingwood lifts the trophy as his side celebrate winning the ICC World Twenty20 final at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown back in 2010 (Picture: Rebecca Naden/PA Wire).England captain Paul Collingwood lifts the trophy as his side celebrate winning the ICC World Twenty20 final at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown back in 2010 (Picture: Rebecca Naden/PA Wire).
England captain Paul Collingwood lifts the trophy as his side celebrate winning the ICC World Twenty20 final at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown back in 2010 (Picture: Rebecca Naden/PA Wire).

Collingwood is the only English captain to lift a major global trophy, having done so in the Caribbean in 2010, but is happy to admit the current generation have taken the game to new heights.

As the team’s batting and fielding coach he is hardly a neutral observer, and he had a front row seat as New Zealand were overwhelmed with bat and ball in a comprehensive semi-final victory in Delhi.

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“In the past our line-up probably had one or two players that were real match-winners; this team is full of match-winners,” said Collingwood, speaking before the West Indies beat India to join them in the showpiece.

The West Indies beat England in their first group game, but Collingwood clearly has no doubts that a reversal is possible in Kolkata.

“You see them coming through the ranks now and they’re taking the game to a different level to what it ever has been in England,” he continued.

“These guys are mentally different to what we used to be. ‘Who dares wins’ is pretty much the motto.

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“We probably would think, ‘this is a big game’ and pull back a little bit.

“It seems to be the other way round for these guys, they seem to thrive on the excitement of the big stage.

“They want to put the other team under pressure as early as possible and that’s the best way to go about it.

“On the odd time it might not work, but you’ll win things, big tournaments, by having an aggressive approach rather than a conservative one.”

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Collingwood’s dressing room was hardly short on star power, with the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad in the ranks, but when asked if the current crop would beat their predecessors in a theoretical head-to-head, he barely paused.

“Well...yeah. They’re a lot more powerful as a batting line-up than we were. I’ve got no problem admitting it,” he said.

“The game has moved forward at a ridiculous rate. But in our era we were good enough to win it and hopefully this era’s England team is good enough to be a step ahead of the rest, exactly like we were.”

They were more of a stride than a step ahead of the well-fancied Black Caps on Wednesday.

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After restricting the chase to 154, England began with four boundaries in the first six balls by Jason Roy and never looked back.

The Surrey opener went on to hammer 78 in 44 balls, before Joe Root (27no) and Jos Buttler (32no) finished things 2.5 overs early with some dashing strokeplay.

And Collingwood is delighted with the way the side are functioning across the disciplines.

“The game is moving all the time and you’ve got to keep moving with the times,” he said.

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“This England team is very athletic with the way they move in the field, it’s a very powerful batting line-up and when it comes to the bowling it covers all bases.

“You’ve got left-arm seamers in there, a guy (Adil Rashid) who spins the ball both ways and guys with good yorkers.

“One of the main reasons we won that game was the way we finished off with the ball. In the last 10 overs we were exceptional.”

When Collingwood returns from India he will head straight back to Durham to begin yet another county season at the age of 39.

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Collingwood is a staunch defender of the domestic game and feels the rise to prominence of players like Roy, Root, Buttler and Ben Stokes – who learned their trade away from the glamour of the IPL and the Big Bash – is a compelling response to those who decry it.

“County cricket gets a hard word a lot of the time in terms of the quality and that kind of stuff, but county cricket produces very skilful players,” he said. “We play for six months on different surfaces week-in, week-out. It’s a crash course in playing cricket, far more than anywhere else in the world. And what it is producing is very skilful batsmen in particular, who are very powerful.”

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