Reuters

Collingwood relies on experience

Updated 09.04 Wed Jun 04 2008

Keywords: sport, cricket, england, england cricket, new zealand, new zealand cricket, paul collingwood, third test, trent bridge

England batsman Paul Collingwood is hoping his experience can help him score more runs.

Collingwood has not been in good form so far this year and he could lose his place in the England Test team when Andrew Flintoff recovers from injury.

"My time away has put me into a position where I am feeling confident again" - Paul Collingwood

He has spent the past week working with England batting coach Andy Flower and he has promised not to panic when he plays in the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

Collingwood said: "In professional sport you're trying to get your mind into a place where you're feeling confident and refreshed.

"When you go through a bad run of form, all you think about 24 hours a day is scoring runs because that's our currency, that's what we're in the side for.

"You do that out in the middle. That's when you start feeling more relaxed but I certainly think my time away has put me into a position where I'm feeling confident again."

Collingwood has not scored a Test century in 22 innings and he only managed 39 runs in his first seven first-class innings this season.

He added: "You draw on your knowledge of previous bad patches. I look back at some of them and I was a lot lower than I am now.

"People say I've played a lot of games now and that's what you're trying to draw back on, what you did well during that specific time. That's what you draw on and I'm sure I've got the strength to come back and score the runs again."