Collingwood on verge of Test spot

Paul Collingwood is set to add to his tally of three Test caps, after England's coach, Duncan Fletcher, revealed that he was pencilled in to bat at the pivotal No. 5 position in the team's final warm-up match, against a strong Pakistan A side at Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore. Collingwood, who stepped in for the fifth and final Test against Australia last summer, has been making great strides as a batting allrounder on this tour, and seems certain to push Ian Bell to the margins to allow England the option of a second spinner.

England's preparations have been slightly disrupted by a viral infection that forced four members of the squad - Matthew Hoggard, Kevin Pietersen, Shaun Udal and Alex Loudon - to retire to their rooms after a tough nets session at the PCB National Academy. But Fletcher had nothing but praise for his team's attitude and intensity, declaring that their work ethic was back up to the levels it had reached on the Bangladesh tour of 2003-04, a trip that laid the foundations for their unbeaten run of six successive series wins.

In many ways, Collingwood epitomises the team ethic that has driven England's recent successes. He made his one-day debut way back in 2001, but in Tests he has been an uncomplaining understudy ever since he was drafted into the squad at Perth on the 2002-03 Ashes tour. This morning at practice, he was flinging himself into yet another exhausting fielding drill - taking a blow on the nose in the process - and Fletcher singled him out in particular.

"Colly is that sort of individual," said Fletcher. "He's so determined to play Test cricket and not be singled out as a one-day cricketer, and he works on his game all the time. One of the criticisms we've had in the past was that he was a bit slow as a bowler. He was clocking in at about 79mph, and you can only get away with that if you bounce the ball like Pollock and McGrath. But the guys have noticed the change out here. He's been up to 84-85mph, which is quite a nice pace to bowl."

Prior to the Oval Test, Collingwood's last Test outings both came on the subcontinent, against Sri Lanka in 2003-04, and Fletcher admitted that experience could have a bearing. "He has fulfilled a useful role for us in the past, and he did well against [Muttiah] Muralitharan. But the big thing is his bowling. On difficult wickets he offers variation, and we've noticed that he's been swinging it most of the time."

Fletcher stressed that nothing had been finalised as regards Bell's position in the side, although the sight of the team doctor, Peter Gregory, extracting his off stump with a slower-ball legbreak at nets today could arguably be taken as the writing on the wall. But he insisted that any decision would rest on the team's bowling tactics. "If we go in with two spinners, we don't believe it's reasonable to share the workload between three seamers," explained Fletcher. "In this heat, and on these flat wickets, it would be asking a lot of Flintoff and Harmison, and so we are trying to lighten their load."

Flintoff and Harmison, for their part, were quickly into a rhythm in their first practice session of the tour. "They only got off the plane 48 hours ago, so it was a gentle run-in. They did what was asked of them, and looked in pretty good nick, so that was encouraging." Both are sure to play at Bagh-e-Jinnah, on a wicket that the local groundsman described as "sporting". Hard and true, with an even covering of grass and a hint of moisture, it should aid both batsmen and bowlers, although it is unlikely to replicate the conditions that England anticipate at Multan next week.

Fletcher was adamant that, despite his team's ropey performance at Rawalpindi, they had the experience and maturity to cope with whatever comes their way. "We will play according to the situation," he said. "The first wicket at Rawalpindi had a very slow outfield and that makes a huge difference, if you play a forward defensive and it goes for one instead of four. But hopefully our guys have got the experience now."

And he was uncharacteristically bullish about the approach that England would take in the series. Having inched to victory in an attritional series in 2000-01, Fletcher envisaged a more positive attitude. "There's no doubt about it," he said. "There's a better feel about it, there's more confidence about this side and their ability. They are just going to have to make sure they don't play too positively and get over-confident. But I don't think they will. We've seen over the last two years, they play the situation well.

"Seven series in a row would be some achievement," he added. "The next big thing is to keep on winning, and added to that, to make sure that the team stays together. That is crucial. If we can go on and beat Australia home and away, and do well on these tours as well, then we can start saying we are getting close to Australia as the best team in the world."

England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss, 3 Michael Vaughan, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Shaun Udal, 10 Matthew Hoggard, 11 Steve Harmison.