Cardiff, July 13: Former England captain Nasser Hussain has praised star batsman Paul Collingwood for a gritty innings which enabled the hosts to escape with a draw in the first Ashes Test here.
Collingwood batted for nearly six hours on the final day yesterday for a patient innings of 74 which saw England escape with a face saving draw after the Australia bowlers had them on the ropes.
”Paul Collingwood provided a real lesson yesterday in how to apply yourself mentally in a high pressure situation, and it is something England’s batsmen must learn from. ”Batting is about mental toughness and it really doesn’t matter about flair, shot-making or anything else if you haven’t got that,” Hussain wrote in his couloumn in the ‘Daily Mail’.
The rest of the top order succumbed to the Australian pace battery and Hussain urged the England batsmen to follow Collingwood’s example in the remaining Test matches.
”Collingwood showed the top order how important it is to have that street fighting capability and we need to see more of it He hasn’t got the talent of Kevin Pietersen or Ravi Bopara, but he has the application required,” he added.
”England will be pleased to have escaped with a draw, but if I was coach I would be holding Collingwood up as an example of how to bat in a Test match.” Criticising the England batsmen for showing a lack of application, the 41-year-old former right-handed batsman wrote,”we need to keep it simple. The Aussies showed us how important the tempo of Test cricket is. You have to accumulate runs and put away the bad balls.” ”Some of our guys are trying to produce the shot of the day rather than challenging the bowlers to produce something special to get them out. That is the lesson I would like our top seven to come away with,” he stated.
—–Agencies