Colly dismisses talk of England fatigue

England trail Australia 2-0 after twice failing to overhaul reasonable targets in the past few days, and there has been an obvious post-Ashes lull to their play.

But Collingwood, one of the men who has been involved in all England's international action since the start of the tour of the Caribbean in January, said: "Whether you are mentally tired or not, you have to go out and put in the performances. And we haven't been doing that. Schedules are the way they are and you have to get on with them."

The 33-year-old added: "Let's be honest, we wanted to peak for the Ashes because we'd been building up to it for a period of time.

"We played well, we won the Ashes, this period now could be a time when you start relaxing again or you have gone over the peak. But when you play against Australia, you can't give them a sniff, it's as simple as that."

The volume of matches has been unrelenting and for Collingwood, England's Twenty20 captain, it has coincided with a struggle for form. His 56 in the 39-run defeat at Lord's on Sunday, in fact, was his first half-century since the Test match win at the same ground in July. But he has become accustomed to periods when his place comes under threat due to poor returns.

"When you are playing for England all the time, you want to be 100% and in good form all the time because of the amount of cricket we play," he said.

"But realistically you can't do that throughout a full year because of the amount we play and the amount of travel involved. Of course I go through periods when I'm feeling tired, mentally more than anything else.

"But you kind of get used to the treadmill of international cricket and I'm not going to make that an excuse for the performances.. I've been doing it for eight years now.

"It is relentless but I'm not going to turn round as a player and say too much about the schedule. When you are doing something you love, you get on with it for as long as your body can withstand it. There are worse jobs in the world. I thoroughly enjoy what I do, it is our lives. It's up to others to comment on the schedule."