PAUL Collingwood has emerged from one of the toughest spells of his career and is relishing his return to the England ranks for today's day-night encounter with South Africa at Trent Bridge.
The 32-year-old Durham all-rounder has suffered a desperate past 12 months as an England player as he struggled with the demands of being one-day captain and the need to deliver in all forms of the game.
The pressures affected Collingwood to such
a degree he teetered on the brink of losing his Test place after going 25 innings without scoring a century, which ended with a determined 135 in the second Test against South Africa at Edgbaston.
He also suffered the indignity of being heavily criticised for failing to recall Grant Elliott during the one-day international against New Zealand at the Oval after he collided with Ryan Sidebottom and was later banned for four matches for failing to maintain a sufficient over-rate.
His luck changed the day after he privately decided to give up the one-day captaincy to concentrate on his own game, when he marched out to the crease to score that defiant hundred and he is now eager to continue his international career.
"It's amazing how quickly it can turn around, but it's happened like that in the past," Collingwood said.
"In Australia, it was that kind of scenario in 2006-2007 and it is amazing when you get that low you think, 'it can't get any worse, let's go out there at the bowler rather than the other way around'. You get into a situation where you think every ball being bowled to you is going to get you out and mentally that is not frame of mind to be in.
"I always remember in Australia I was really low because we went over there with high expectations and to get beat 5-0 was a real low.
"But playing against New Zealand, out of the two series you would say you would expect to score more runs against them and I found it a real battle."
In ten innings against New Zealand in the six Tests played against them this year, Collingwood passed 50 only three times and averaged a lowly 30, but he is hoping his return to the ranks can help provoke a response in his form and secure his place for next year's bigger challenge in the Ashes series.
"I'd rather be crap against New Zealand and then build form up towards Australia. Maybe that is the way to look at it," he said.
With the International Cricket Council counting the washed out one-day international against Scotland and the Twenty20 International against South Africa as games towards the ban, Collingwood is available again for the second outing in the NatWest Series at Trent Bridge.
It will be his first one-day international as a player since succeeding Michael Vaughan as captain following the 2007 World Cup and he admitted: "I'm looking forward to that.
"That was part of the decision (to give up the captaincy), to just go back into the ranks and enjoy my cricket because it was getting to the point where I was going out and not enjoying it."
Collingwood is expected to bat at six and will replace either Ravi Bopara or Luke Wright.
England (from): K P Pietersen (Hampshire, capt), I R Bell (Warwickshire), M J Prior (Sussex, wkt), O A Shah (Middlesex), A Flintoff (Lancashire), P D Collingwood (Durham), R S Bopara (Essex), L J Wright (Sussex), S R Patel (Nottinghamshire), S C Broad (Nottinghamshire), S J Harmison (Durham), J M Anderson (Lancashire), G P Swann (Nottinghamshire), T T Bresnan (Yorkshire), AN Cook (Essex).
South Africa (from): G C Smith (capt), H H Gibbs, J H Kallis, A B de Villiers, J P Duminy, M A Boucher (wkt), J Botha, V D Philander, M Morkel, A Nel, D W Steyn, M Ntini.
The full article contains 666 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
