Collingwood prepares to launch new era

Paul Collingwood: England's new captain is ready for action © Getty Images

Paul Collingwood's first challenge as England's one-day captain comes at The Oval on Thursday, when his new-look side takes on West Indies in the first of back-to-back Twenty20 internationals. It promises to be a high-octane encounter against an opposition who were trounced in the Test series but possess far greater experience in the shorter form of the game.

The West Indies camp has been in disarray this week following the comments made by their disgruntled captain, Chris Gayle, which led to an almighty dressing-down from Ken Gordon, the president of the WICB. But Gayle is just one of many members of their squad who might have been born for Twenty20 cricket. A chance to belt away their frustrations in front of a packed and pumped crowd could be just what their ailing fortunes require.

They certainly need not be cowed by their previous efforts against England on this tour, because it will be a much-changed opposition that takes the field tomorrow. No Michael Vaughan, no Andrew Strauss, no Steve Harmison, to name but three of the Test side. In fact, Collingwood - with 121 one-day caps - is almost twice as experienced as England's next most-capped player, James Anderson, and of the remaining 12 members of the squad, nine have 20 caps or fewer to their name.

Two debutants could make their first appearances tomorrow - the Hampshire allrounder, Dimitri Mascarenhas, and Warwickshire's South African-born batsman, Jonathan Trott, who has overcome a bruised hand sustained in the nets on Tuesday. Ian Bell, meanwhile, faces a fitness test on his injured groin, and a decision on his participation will be delayed until Thursday morning.

It is a time for a renewal of England's one-day fortunes, something of which Collingwood is keenly aware after a desperate World Cup campaign in the Caribbean. "Things are not going to happen overnight," he said. "Hopefully they do - that would be fantastic - but we can't expect too much. We have some great young guys coming through who can learn their trade out in the middle playing against international sides.

"Hopefully the next time we go into a World Cup we'll have that consistency and real belief behind us that we're confident we can go out there and beat the best sides in the world on a consistent basis.

Not too much will be read into Collingwood's first foray as captain, especially in the rough-and-tumble of Twenty20 cricket, but there's no doubting that he will be standing up for his charges if the heat of battle gets a little intense. "We will not back off from anything and if a challenge comes along I know we've got the guys out there who can stand up to it and that's a good thing," he said. "What you want out there is 11 leaders and when it gets feisty you want 11 people going at it wanting to be together as a team.

"Peter Moores has come in and brought some fresh ideas, but a lot of it comes down to intent, not just in the first 15 or 20 overs but throughout the match," said Collingwood. "That should come through when we're batting, bowling and fielding. We want to hunt in a pack and all these things can help build us into a good one-day cricket side."

As for West Indies, their recent strife with the board has been a distraction, but could also provide the team with the necessary glue to pull them through the remainder of the tour. "That is something we have had discussions about," said Gayle. "We have had team meetings and discussed trying to put the negatives aside and try and plan how we are going to compete against England.

"It is also a case of the team regaining their pride after the Test series," added Gayle. "There is a lot of pride to gain. We are going to take nothing for granted.It would be much easier for us to start on a winning note and tomorrow's game can really set up the rest of the series for us. We want to grab that opportunity and make the most of it. It will be a motivational factor for us as well.

England (from) 1 Paul Collingwood, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Matt Prior, 4 Jonathan Trott, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Owais Shah, 7 Michael Yardy, 8 Dimitri Mascarenhas, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 James Anderson, 11 Monty Panesar, 12 Ian Bell, 13 Liam Plunkett, 14 Stuart Broad.

West Indies (from) 1 Chris Gayle (capt), 2 Devon Smith, 3 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Runako Morton, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Dwayne Smith, 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Dinesh Ramdin (wk), 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Fidel Edwards, 12 Lendl Simmons, 13 Austin Richards jr.