Paul Collingwood was dropped from both the England Twenty20 and one-day international squads announced yesterday for the upcoming fixtures against Sri Lanka.
The veteran all-rounder retired from Test duty after England’s victorious Ashes campaign in Australia, but he was included in the World Cup squad.
However, upon his return home after England’s 10-wicket quarter-final thrashing by Sri Lanka, Collingwood was stripped of the Twenty20 captaincy — despite leading the side to the World Twenty20 title in the West Indies last year — and replaced as skipper by leadership novice Stuart Broad.
The 35-year-old Collingwood, a former England one-day captain, only recently returned to county action with Durham following a knee injury and England national selector Geoff Miller said: “Paul Collingwood has been an inspirational limited-overs cricketer for England over many years and we still see a role for him in this capacity based on form and fitness.”
Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter and all-rounder Samit Patel won recalls to both squads. Kieswetter replaces Matt Prior, England’s Test wicketkeeper who played at the World Cup.
South Africa-born Kiewswetter, also a hard-hitting batsman, played a key role in England’s World Twenty20 triumph in the Caribbean, but then lost form and found himself out of international contention.
Patel, 26, won the last of his 11 one-day caps in November 2008 and has finally accepted calls from the England management to improve his fitness.
His ability as a second spinner will enable England to field another slow bowler in addition to his county colleague Graeme Swann.
England Test captain Andrew Strauss has retired from one-day games, so the side will be led by Alastair Cook, even though he was not selected for the World Cup.
RSS