Collingwood sees hope of revival in short game

England's one-day captain helped Durham to the Friends Provident Trophy on Sunday then headed straight to Southampton for today's opening NatWest game at the Rose Bowl. Now he wants to replicate his county's winning feeling in much tougher circumstances, over seven matches against a formidable India side.

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This elongated series, which precedes the World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa and England's one-day campaign in Sri Lanka, will demonstrate whether Collingwood has been able to make an impact since taking over from Michael Vaughan in June.

India will start as firm favourites despite a World Cup even more disappointing than England's but at least Collingwood can welcome back Andrew Flintoff and Ravi Bopara after injury and now has an unusual amount of time to work with the best limited-overs players England can offer.

Collingwood said: 'This is a great chance to develop our approach and our individual skills. Playing in this series and then in South Africa over 20 overs and Sri Lanka over 50 will give us great experience in very different conditions.'

How England need that improvement. Their 2-1 defeat against the West Indies earlier this season, Collingwood's first series in charge, raised more questions than answers, principal among them their failure either to take advantage of the power-plays or keep wickets in reserve to launch a late assault. England were able to do neither, while West Indies built an innings then hit more than 100 off the last 10 overs in their victories at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.

England look set to drop Alastair Cook, prematurely it could be argued, in their latest attempt to get off to a more positive start and are likely to pair Ian Bell with Matt Prior, who will definitely open and retains the confidence of England despite a mauling over his Test series performances against India.

Flintoff will take his usual place at six in the order, with Collingwood returning to his favoured slot at five and promising to lead the side from backward point after forsaking his specialist fielding position, to the detriment of the side's mobility, to communicate more easily with his bowlers against West Indies.

With Kevin Pietersen happiest at four, that leaves England to ponder the best positions for Owais Shah, the success story of their batting in both Twenty20 and 50 overs against West Indies, and Bopara.

Ryan Sidebottom will miss out, his side injury yesterday ruling him out of at least today's game, leaving Stuart Broad and the local pair of Dimitri Mascarenhas and Chris Tremlett competing for two places to join Flintoff, Bopara, Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar in England's attack.

Whoever England pick, the time has come for at least the green shoots of recovery to become evident in their one-day cricket. They have struggled, in effect, ever since reaching the 1992 World Cup Final but briefly threatened to conquer the shorter form in 2004 when they reached the Champions Trophy final and a year later when they matched the Australians.

But in 42 one-day internationals against 'proper' opposition since the summer of 2005, England have been bowled out in 22 of them while dismissing their opponents only 10 times, England's attack seemingly at their least effective during the middle overs in which they have invariably let games drift.

They are damning statistics that England now have the time and the opportunity to put right without first-class interruption. But unless the tosses are kind and luck goes with them, Collingwood is unlikely to be celebrating after more than two of the seven matches between now and September 8.

ENGLAND (probable): Bell, Prior (wkt), Shah, Pietersen, Collingwood (capt), Flintoff, Bopara, Broad, Tremlett, Panesar, Anderson.

INDIA (probable): Tendulkar, Ganguly, Karthik, Dravid (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Gambhir, Dhoni (wkt), Powar, Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh. TV: Sky Sports 1 2.0pm.

Today: Rose Bowl;

Aug 24: Bristol.

Aug 27: Edgbaston.

Aug 30: Old Trafford.

Sept 2: Headingley.

Sept 5: The Oval.

Sept 8: Lord's.

England's ODI record v India - P58 W26 L30 NR2.

England's highest total - 334 (1975 World Cup, Lord's).

India's highest total - 326 (2002, Lord's).