WC: England on a high, says Collingwood

Dhaka: England’s thrashing at the hands of Australia in a recent one-day series will not affect the morale for their World Cup assault, all-rounder Paul Collingwood said on Monday.

England won the 2010 World Twenty20 and the Ashes series in Australia, but then slumped to a 6-1 defeat in the following one-day series.

“We are disappointed, but hopefully it will not be a factor in our chances to win this World Cup,” Collingwood told reporters in Dhaka. “It’s a different set of conditions altogether.

“The guys have a lot of confidence that they have played some good cricket in the one-day format in the past two years. So we will focus on that rather than on the last two months in Australia.”

England have not won the World Cup in their nine previous attempts, but Collingwood said the current side had the self-belief to break that drought.

“We have got a very skillful side,” he said.

“We seem to adapt to the conditions very well. We have played some really tough series and went on to win in the West Indies, South Africa and obviously we beat Australia (in the Ashes).

“We believe we are good enough to go and win the World Cup.”

Collingwood, who led England to the World Twenty20 triumph, lost his place at the start of the one-day series against Australia following a lean Ashes series, prompting him to retire from Test cricket last month.

“I have spent my time in Test cricket and totally enjoyed my career in that form of the game. But I still believe I have got a lot to give in the one-day format and in T20s.

“I am still enjoying the environment we have created in the England team,” said Collingwood, who has scored 5,031 runs and picked 110 wickets from 193 one-day internationals.

England are placed in Group B with India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands and the West Indies, with the top four sides making it to the quarter-finals.

The showpiece tournament starts in Dhaka on Saturday. England start their title march against the Netherlands three days later.

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