Cook backs Collingwood to come good

Alastair Cook believes that Paul Collingwood will fight his way back to form in the final two Tests of England's Ashes campaign at Melbourne and Sydney, and feels that his spirit in adversity will be a key inspiration as England seek to recover from their three-and-a-half day thrashing in the third Test at the WACA, and regain their lead in the series.

Collingwood has been struggling to make an impact in the series to date, with notable failures during England's first-day collapse in the first Test at Brisbane and then in both innings at Perth, where he was unable to contend with a fast bouncy wicket and a pumped-up Australian attack. He currently averages 16 for the series, but has made just 99 runs in his last nine Test innings, having also struggled with the moving ball in England's home series against Pakistan.

Cook, however, has seen it all before from Collingwood, who saved his Test career with a battling century against South Africa at Edgbaston in 2008, and who has been an invaluable source of resistance in England's middle order in recent seasons - not least at Cardiff eighteen months ago, when his last-day 74 guided England most of the way to safety in a match that provided a decisive momentum shift in the 2009 Ashes.

"I think we all know that when his back is right against the wall that's when he plays his best cricket," said Cook. "That hundred against South Africa at Edgbaston was brilliant, it was one of the best hundreds I've ever seen in those conditions, and when the going has got tough over the last 12 months, when we've been desperately trying to save a draw, Colly's the guy who you want and has been out there. When his back's against the wall, 99 per cent of the time he delivers the goods and it's very good to have someone in the side like that who is a fighter."

Cook himself knows how fickle the pursuit of form can be - it was only last summer that he himself was facing the axe from England's Test team after a string of low scores, but he turned his game around with a gutsy century in the second innings of the Oval Test against Pakistan, and then went into overdrive against Australia, racking up 450 runs in his first three innings of the series, including a career-best 235 not out at Brisbane.

"I had it last summer so we all know what Colly's going through," said Cook. "But he looks confident when he's training, he feels in good spirits and he's been there a number of times before, so he knows how to come out of it and I'm sure he will."

England as a collective will have to come out of their own form dip this week, after a defeat that caught them somewhat on the hop, given how dominant they had been in Adelaide in particular, and given how toothless Australia's attack had appeared in the absence of Mitchell Johnson, whose return to form produced one of the most spectacular spells of swing bowling in an already remarkable year for the art.

Cook, however, believes that the defeat - while damaging for their immediate series prospects - will serve as a timely reminder of the unique challenges that arise on an Ashes tour, because at no stage for the rest of the tour will any situation be taken for granted. "I think it's good for everyone [to recognise] this Australian side is very good and they got written off very quickly after we played very well at Adelaide," he said. "But they've come back very well here and we've got the opportunity to do that in Melbourne.

"We had a good meeting after the game about it, trying to put a few issues to bed," he added. "Obviously we didn't play very well. I thought we bowled pretty well but the batters - to get bowled out for 180-odd and 123, you're not going to win any games with that - so it was very disappointing after what we achieved so far on the tour. It has been a tough couple of days."

It was not, as Cook admitted, the first time that England's batting has let them down this year. In Johannesburg back in January, the top order were wiped out in seaming conditions by Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, before Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif tormented them at different stages of each of the four Tests against Pakistan.

"We've got a little bit of a history doing it, losing wickets quickly," said Cook. "That's an area we're desperately trying to improve on. I think in those first few games on this tour we've been very good at not doing that. So it's disappointing it has crept back in such an important game, but sometimes a reality check is not the worst thing for us as. After scoring so many runs in those two games this wasn't a great game to do it in, but it keeps our feet firmly on the floor.

"Players tend to be very honest within the group about what we thought went wrong," he added. "But as people know, there is no magic cure to do it, so the only way of trying [to stop that] is individually. Those first few balls you go in, that's when it's most dangerous, especially when momentum has built up against you. Maybe we didn't quite recognise that quickly enough. But you have to give a lot of credit to how the opposition bowled as well."

Despite a six-wicket haul in the second innings for Ryan Harris, it was Johnson who scooped the plaudits on the bowling front, after rediscovering his ability to bend the ball at 90mph back into the right-hander. Cook insisted that they had been prepared for such a mode of attack, but the speed of their collapse on the second day, with Johnson claiming 4 for 7, suggested otherwise.

"With that wind pushing it in late at 90mph, he bowled well," said Cook. "We weren't surprised by it but [compared to] what we saw at Brisbane, he didn't swing it back in at all there. Then to turn it around and swing it as much as he did here, you have to give him a lot of credit for what he did [in the nets] in that game he wasn't playing [at Adelaide]. We now have to be fully aware he can definitely do it."

Looking ahead to the Boxing Day Test, however, Cook doubted whether the pitch would offer quite the same level of assistance that Johnson found at the WACA. The three-day warm-up match against Victoria was played out on a deathly slow surface that required three declarations to make a game of it, and more recently, the MCG curator, Cameron Hodgkins, opted to prepare the second of two potential Test strips in a bid to get a surface with more grass covering.

"Conditions will be different," said Cook. "There's some talk about the Melbourne wicket at the moment, but historically the WACA is quick and Melbourne is not as quick so it can't change too much. It did swing last week in that warm-up game, mainly reverse swing so it will be interesting to see what the weather's like and whether it does that again."