Collingwood thrilled to return to his debut ground

Paul Collingwood is one player, who is extremely keen on performing to his best in the third and final Test at Galle. It is the same ground where England’s middle-order batsman made his debut.

In his maiden game, Collingwood had played a patient innings of 36 from 153 balls on the final day of the Test to ensure that England narrowly escaped the defeat ending the game in a draw with last pair returning back to the pavilion safely.

The venue and stage are same but for him the task is different. With England 1-0 down in the three match series against Sri Lanka, Collingwood will have to come up with a performance that would put England in driver’s seat.

Now four years down the line Collingwood’s responsibility has increased many folds. He leads the Poms in the shorter version of the game. A job that demands a lot of mental toughness. And like his role in the team, a lot has changed at the venue too of which Collingwood has fond memories. Galle stadium was devastated by the ferocious Tsunami tides and is getting in shape to host its first international game in three years amongst threatening showers.
"We are just going to have to get on with it. It is going to be a very sad occasion in many ways but we have seen how the Sri Lankan people have reacted to such a disaster. They are trying to rebuild their lives and we will try to put some smiles back on their faces,” Collingwood was quoted as saying.

Collingwood with his English team members coached 22 youngsters at the ground's indoor centre as part of an England and Wales Cricket Board partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme.

England coach banking on Bell

The 25-year old Bell was sent at number three particularly in this series with a view to provide the youngster a platform to notch up some big innings. Collingwood has scored 17 half centuries 11 of those have come overseas, which suggests that the Warwickshire batsman is able to adjust to different conditions and pitches. It indicates that the youngster gets starts in the longer version. However, he has just 1 century to his credit which the right hander scored in Pakistan. This shows that he has failed to transform his half centuries into three figure scores.

The right-hander in this series started off on a good note scoring 83 and 74 in the Kandy Test, which the visitors lost. Displaying his fighting skills Bell emerged as the England’s top scorer in both innings. He couldn’t carry the same form in the Colombo Test and was dismissed by Muarlidaran in both the innings 15 and 54 respectively.

England coach Peter Moores is however highly confident of Bell’s temperament and style and reckons he will soon emerge as the top-class player.

England needs to win the final game to level the series 1-1. The win also become important in terms of points as a defeat might see England lose grip over their second ranking in Test in the official ICC Cricket Council ratings.