Collingwood: We're hungry to succeed

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The Durham all-rounder marked a remarkable start to his reign as England's one-day captain by following an unexpected home series win over India with a stunning series triumph in Sri Lanka, their first major one-day series win on the sub-continent for 20 years.

"A lot of good and experienced teams have come here and gone away with nothing, but this lot are a young bunch of lads who have the energy and the belief but they've also shown they've got the skills as well," Collingwood said.

England achieved their historic success by cruising to a five-wicket triumph on Wednesday after restricting Sri Lanka to 211 for nine before man of the match Alastair Cook hit a patient 80 and Kevin Pietersen guided England home with an unbeaten 63.

Their triumph was all the more significant because it was achieved without key all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who is sidelined with his latest ankle problem and until now had been regarded as irreplaceable in England's one-day line-up.

"Freddie is a massive part of English cricket and he will be again in the future, but these lads are very young and they're still learning," enthused Collingwood. "That's one of the exciting things about this."

Collingwood admitted young Essex duo Cook and Ravi Bopara, both 22, and 21-year-old seamer Stuart Broad have surprised him with their development over the past two months.

But he stressed their desire to improve both individually and as a team, which was highlighted by the bowlers learning quickly to bowl slower balls after their opening defeat, may make the difference in the future.

He said: "What we've got now is a really good structure and I have to give a lot of credit to the management and the environment they have created when new guys come into the party.

"We're also working on our games as much as I've ever known and that's a really crucial thing. Everybody wants to become better and better and when you've got all 15 members of your squad wanting to become better in between games that's a dream come true from a captain's point of view."