Paul Collingwood says England's powerful batting line-up is frightening
Wednesday 8 March 2017 11:57, UK
Former England all-rounder Paul Collingwood says the current team's powerful batting line-up in one-day cricket is frightening.
Ahead of England's third one-day international against the West Indies - live on Sky Sports 2 from 1pm on Thursday - Collingwood, who is part of the coaching team in the Caribbean, says he fears for his safety when the batsmen practise their big-hitting in the nets.
"It's ridiculous. It's frightening," Collingwood told Sky Sports. "We do a lot of throw downs with the guys, and it is getting to the stage where we're going to have to use helmets because of the power of the guys.
"I was just having a little play fight with Jason Roy the other day, and I thought he was going to kill me. The brute strength of the guy.
"Coming from the era I played in - certainly in the early days - you'd have maybe four players who could clear the ropes and you were frightened to bowl at.
"But now the line-up is just so powerful. You see the confidence they have to go out there and hit the ball hard. It's frightening enough as a coach in the nets, I wouldn't want to be a bowler bowling at them."
Despite that powerful line-up, England struggled to chase down 226 in the second ODI against the West Indies, suffering a mini-collapse of four wickets for 16 runs to spin, before ultimately earning a series-clinching four-wicket win.
Collingwood says that shows the team are by no means the finished article, but ahead of this summer's ICC Champions Trophy, he believes the team are now more capable of winning a major trophy than any England team of his era.
"We've got to learn from those situations, like the other day," added Collingwood, who captained England to the World T20 title in 2010. "The wicket was obviously turning a little bit, but only needing four-and-a-half an over, we shouldn't really be giving the opposition a chance to get into the game like we did.
"But we're doing a lot of good things, and I'd rather look at the positives than the negatives all the time.
"The way this team has developed over the last couple of years is by being aggressive. That's their strength, putting other teams under pressure. That's when they play their best cricket.
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"We don't want to put any ceiling on them. Once you start restricting these guys, they'll just end up like any other normal team.
"I always felt in my day we were restricted, nervous about getting out, or of failure.
"This team has a chance in big tournaments now, of course it does."
Watch the third ODI between West Indies and England in Barbados, live on Sky Sports 2 from 1pm on Thursday.
