Paul Collingwood Asked England Team For a Focus Towards ODI Series

Since regaining the Ashes on 23 August, England have lost the opening two games of the seven-match ODI series.

"The public are just interested in the Ashes and everything else doesn't matter too much," Collingwood said.

"To us, as players, this is an important stepping stone, we want to keep improving our one-day cricket."

Collingwood insisted that the players were determined not to rest on their laurels following the Ashes success.

"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," the all-rounder said.

"Whether you are mentally tired or not, you have to put in the performances."

After the euphoria of the Ashes, England have continued a disappointing run in 50-over cricket, which sees them languishing in sixth place in the world rankings.

Their quest for a first major one-day international trophy will resume at the Champions Trophy in South Africa on 25 September, but they will be looking to ensure the series with Australia is still alive by the time of the final match at the Riverside only five days earlier.

England have had their moments in recent one-day matches, beating Sri Lanka 2-1 in October 2007, thrashing South Africa 4-0 in the home series of 2008 and winning 3-2 in the West Indies this year, but have lacked consistency.

"How many times have we been in this position? We're always saying we're good at bouncing back and we tend to be for some strange reason," said Collingwood, who has played 164 one-day internationals.

"We often manage to pull ourselves out of a bit of a hole.

"We're not going to get too down on ourselves because we've got ourselves in good positions to win both games.

"We must make sure from now on that we create those opportunities because I'm sure we will take them.

"Thankfully, it is a seven-match series so there is time to come back. We were always going to have to win four games so that's still the case."

Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Matt Prior will enjoy three weeks rest in October after Sussex announced he would not travel with them to the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.

Source: BBC News

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