England debut Collingwood's form for Durham in 2001 earned him a call-up to the England
One Day International (ODI) squad, selected for the
NatWest Series against
Pakistan and
Australia that summer, becoming the 162nd to play for England in ODI cricket. He was not particularly successful on his ODI debut in June 2001, scoring only two runs and taking no wickets against Pakistan at
Edgbaston, and doing poorly (20 runs in four innings and no wickets) in the rest of the series. Despite this, the selectors showed confidence in him by choosing him for the
2001–02 one-day tour of
Zimbabwe, where he took his first ODI wicket, that of
Dion Ebrahim in the Third ODI at
Harare Sports Club. He starred with the bat in the Fourth ODI at
Queens Sports Club,
Bulawayo, with a match-winning 77, and made an unbeaten 56 in the final ODI, also in Bulawayo, helping England secure a 5–0
whitewash. Collingwood played in all seven matches of the 2002 NatWest Series against
India and
Sri Lanka, ending on the losing side in the final to India. Neither his batting nor bowling during this series were particularly impressive, averaging less than 24 with the bat and taking only five wickets in the series, but he went on to make his first ODI
century in the 2002/2003
VB Series victory against Sri Lanka at the
WACA. While this performance cemented his position in the England one–day setup, he dislocated his right shoulder while fielding in a pre–season county friendly against
Lancashire and was forced to miss most of the 2003 season. Nevertheless, he was awarded a 12-month
ECB contract when the winter touring squads were announced for
Bangladesh and
Sri Lanka. With
Nasser Hussain suffering from a bout of
'flu, Collingwood made his Test debut against the Sri Lankans in the First Test at
Galle in December 2003, It was during this game that he established his position as one of the best English fielders, with five catches and a run-out in the drawn match. He retained his place in England's one-day side throughout the
summer of 2004 despite a knee injury, and scored an unbeaten 79 in the second match of the NatWest Challenge against India at
The Oval, with England winning the series 2–1. Collingwood was also England's second highest run-scorer in the
2004 ICC Champions Trophy, scoring 141 runs at an average of 70.5,
Ashes 2005 On 21 June 2005, playing for England against
Bangladesh at
Trent Bridge, Collingwood scored 112 not out from 86 balls and then took six wickets for 31 runs. These were the best–ever bowling figures by an Englishman in an ODI, and made Collingwood the first player to score a
century and take six wickets in an ODI. This performance surpassed the previous best all–round ODI performance, that of
Viv Richards, who scored a hundred and took five wickets against
New Zealand in
Dunedin in the 1986/1987 season. Collingwood was selected for the Test squad at the outset of
the series but was not called into action until bowler
Simon Jones was ruled out due to injury during the Fourth Test at Trent Bridge. Collingwood therefore played only the Fifth Test. Although he only scored 7 and 10 with the bat that match, his "
blocking" alongside
Kevin Pietersen in a 60-run sixth wicket stand on the final day helped England draw the match, and clinch the series to take
the Ashes for the first time since 1987. together with other members of the England team, for his role in the successful Ashes victory. There was some critical comment that his limited role did not warrant the honour as he had played only in the Fifth Test and scored just 17 runs in 2 innings. He was dropped for the Second Test as
Michael Vaughan returned, but came back into the team for the Third Test against Pakistan when the top–order was reshuffled after
Andrew Strauss returned to England for the birth of his first child. Despite Collingwood making his maiden Test 50 and following it with another in the second innings, England lost the match and consequently the three-match series 2–0. In the ODI series, he and Durham teammates
Liam Plunkett and
Steve Harmison accounted for the majority of the wickets taken by England, through a combination of their bowling and fielding. Following his performance in Pakistan, Collingwood was called into the England team for the First Test against India in March 2006 after injury and illness respectively to Vaughan and
Marcus Trescothick. Collingwood justified his position in the team with a magnificent 134 not out in the first innings on 2 March 2006, his first Test century. Uncharacteristically, he dropped two catches during the First Test at
Lord's, He went on to make up for the dropped catches in the Second Test at Edgbaston, where he took five catches in two innings while playing his usual batting style as foil (with
Andrew Flintoff) to
Kevin Pietersen's 142 in the first innings. In the subsequent Twenty20 International match against Sri Lanka, he took 4–22, the best bowling record in Twenty20 Internationals, but still ended on the losing side. He then followed this up with an important innings in the First Test against
Pakistan later that summer, scoring his second Test century. This score proved to be England's highest of the series. Later that summer, he reached his 100th ODI cap and 50 ODI wickets in the same match by claiming the wickets of
Inzamam-ul-Haq and
Abdul Razzaq during the Fifth ODI against Pakistan in Birmingham on 10 September.
Ashes 2006/07 at
Adelaide Oval Following a successful summer, Collingwood was selected later in 2006 for both the
2006 ICC Champions Trophy squad and
Ashes touring party. However, after two lacklustre defeats to India and Australia, critics such as
Geoffrey Boycott and some fans began to question the coaching staff's placement of him in the
batting order. The return of Andrew Flintoff following an injury would reignite the ongoing debate about which two of
Cook,
Bell and Collingwood should be included in the team, with many speculating that Collingwood would be the man to miss out. With the sudden departure of Marcus Trescothick from the tour just over a week before the First Test, the debate was settled for the time being. However, on the fourth day, England seemed to be batting towards a draw, when Collingwood, who had worked his way to a hard–earned 96 was stumped "...skipping miles down the pitch and trying to smack
Warne over his head to reach a hundred". This was a pivotal moment: England went on to lose the next six wickets for 126 runs, and so lost the Test match. In the Second Test at
Adelaide, Collingwood made a career-best 206 in England's first innings, sharing in a 310–run fourth–wicket stand with Pietersen; he became only the eighth English double centurion against Australia in Ashes history, and the first in Australia since
Wally Hammond scored 251 and 200 in consecutive innings during the
1928–29 Ashes. In the second innings he added an unbeaten 22 from 119 balls over nearly 3 hours, while England collapsed to 129 all out and so went 2–0 down. England fared no better in the Third and Fourth Tests, losing them both, with Collingwood picking up only 60 with the bat in his four innings. During the Fifth Test at the
Sydney Cricket Ground in January 2007, Australia's
Shane Warne revived the controversy of Collingwood's MBE with clearly audible "
sledging" at Collingwood's expense. Collingwood's performance during this Test was mediocre, scoring 27 and 17 with the bat and not being called upon to bowl a single ball, as Australia won comfortably by ten wickets. Despite the series ending with a 5–0 whitewash by Australia, Collingwood finished the series ranked 14th in the LG ICC World Rankings for Test batsmen. The
Commonwealth Bank One-Day International Series began on a low note for Collingwood, with a loss in the opening game against Australia at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground. Despite the defeat being followed by a narrow win over
New Zealand in
Hobart, the team and Collingwood went into a rapid decline, losing a string of four matches. He missed England's 92–run victory over Australia due to
food poisoning, but returned to make 106 and capture two wickets in the decisive 14–run victory over New Zealand in the final group stage match. becoming the eighth Englishman to hit centuries in consecutive ODIs. His innings of 120
not out was the highest ever by an English ODI player against Australia in Australia. His knock was named as the fourth-best ODI Batting Performance of the year by ESPNcricinfo. In the second of the finals, he was
Man of the Match for the third consecutive game, top–scoring for England with 70 and taking two wickets, as well another difficult catch off the bowling of
Sajid Mahmood to once again dismiss
Matthew Hayden.
World Cup 2007 Flush with confidence and in form from the tri-series victory, Collingwood and the English arrived in the Caribbean with high hopes. However, two unimpressive performances by the team during the warm-up matches against
Bermuda and
Australia, followed by defeat to
New Zealand in the first Group match dampened expectations. This was coupled with the removal of
Andrew Flintoff from the vice-captaincy due to an incident of unruly behaviour,
2007 season Collingwood and the team opened their first home Test at Lord's with a dominant first innings against the West Indies, as Collingwood's score of 111 joined Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Matt Prior and Kevin Pietersen in becoming the first ever group of five Englishmen to score centuries at Lord's in the same match. This was followed up during the opposition innings with his second Test wicket, that of
Dwayne Bravo. Following his good form in the Test series, Collingwood was named as captain of the England team for the two Twenty20 Internationals and three One-Day International games against the West Indies, Collingwood outshone the other English batsmen with his individual effort during the first, hitting 79 runs from just 41 deliveries. The England team continued into the 50-over
ODI matches, winning the first by a comfortable 79 under Collingwood's captaincy, though the man himself hit only 5 runs. He went on to captain the one-day side against India, where they won the 1st ODI but lost an entertaining 2nd ODI at Bristol by 9 runs. After the 2nd ODI Collingwood was fined half of his match fee for a slow over rate. England eventually won the closely fought series 4–3. Collingwood was fined £1000 during the
2007 Twenty20 World Championship when he visited a
lap-dancing club prior to England's match with New Zealand. Collingwood led the team to victory over Zimbabwe in the group stages of the tournament, but England, under his leadership, were later defeated by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India to go out of the competition before the final stages. During England's subsequent tour of
Sri Lanka Collingwood led the team to victory in the ODI Series. In the later Test series, he became the 709th Test wicket of
Muttiah Muralitharan, who thus overtook
Shane Warne as the highest Test wicket taker.
2008 Collingwood enjoyed a successful Test series away in New Zealand in early 2008, scoring 244 runs from three matches at 40.66, passing 50 three times. His ODI game also enjoyed success – 151 runs at 50.33 with two half-centuries from his four ODI matches. Collingwood had a less successful home series, however, scoring only 32 runs in three matches, 24 of these in one innings, and ended the series with an average of just 10.66. Collingwood's poor form continued into the first Test of South Africa's tour of England in July 2008, as he scored only seven runs in his first innings at Lord's, although replays suggested an umpiring error, the ball hitting not his bat but only his pad. He was left out of the side for the following Test at
Headingley, making way for Andrew Flintoff, but was recalled for the third Test at Edgbaston, scoring a century and giving England a chance of beating South Africa and levelling the series. Half an hour after
Michael Vaughan resigned from the Test captaincy, Collingwood relinquished charge of the ODI squad because it was affecting his ability to enjoy the game. Collingwood told his wife on the night before his century against South Africa that it was time to go. He later explained, "I've found the extra workload to be very difficult [...]. It's mentally tiring, and that's the top and bottom of it. I want to have a smile on my face when I'm playing cricket, and, if I'd have kept going, I'm not sure that would have been the case."
2009 . Collingwood deputised as England wicket-keeper for an injured
Matt Prior in the second home Test against the West Indies in May 2009; he enjoyed the experience and was generally successful, including effecting a catch from an edge by
Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Collingwood's form in the 2009 World Twenty20 tournament wasn't good: in five innings, managing just 63 runs. More important, however, was his form in the longest version of the game, in which he had attained something like a peak. Going into the 2009 Ashes, indeed, he was relishing his best-ever run in the Test side, having hoarded three centuries in his last twelve innings. In the first Test of the
2009 Ashes at the
SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, Collingwood scored 64 in the first innings as England totalled 435. On a flat wicket, however, this was put into context by the Australians, who amassed 674 for 6 declared, with four centurions; Collingwood bowled nine overs, and claimed the wicket of
Brad Haddin caught at deep midwicket. In reply, England slid to 70 for 5 and seemed certain to succumb to an innings defeat. In response, Collingwood stayed at the crease for 5¾ hours (nearly the whole of the final day) and top-scored for England with 74 runs from 245 balls. He was ninth man out, edging
Peter Siddle to gully, but final pair
James Anderson and
Monty Panesar blocked out the final 11½ overs of the match to secure an improbable draw. In the second Test at
Lord's Collingwood succumbed to a loose first-innings dismissal, chipping part-time spinner
Michael Clarke to mid-on for 16 (and earning the ire of his captain
Andrew Strauss, who went on to score 161); England, poised at 302 for 3 before Collingwood's dismissal, subsided to 425 all out. Nonetheless, England's seamers bowled Australia out for 215, and in the second innings Collingwood scored a measured 54, acting as foil to the aggressive strokeplay of
Matt Prior (their partnership adding 86 in twelve overs) and
Andrew Flintoff (51 in eight overs). As Flintoff and
Graeme Swann combined to bowl England to victory, Collingwood contributed two fine slip catches. on 22 June 2010. After Lord's, however, his form tailed away considerably: tormented by Australia's seam-bowling attack, his scores for the rest of the series were 13, 0 and 4, and 24 and 1, bringing his batting average for the five-match series down to 27.78. Collingwood's difficulties with the bat seemed to affect his usually high-class catching, and he dropped three chances of varying degrees of difficulty on the final day of the series at
the Oval, though he did take a sharp catch to dismiss
Mitchell Johnson for a duck off
Steve Harmison as part of England's surge to a 197-run victory in the match, and a 2–1 victory in the series. Against South Africa in November 2009, Collingwood surpassed
Alec Stewart's record of 170 ODIs to become England's most capped player. He held the record until May 2019, when
Eoin Morgan surpassed Collingwood during
England's series against Pakistan.
Late career and retirement In early 2010, Collingwood led the England Twenty20 team to the
2010 World Twenty20 championship. Collingwood appeared in all seven games, struggling with the bat as he scored only 61 runs at 10.16; with the ball, he only bowled one over for ten runs, although his prowess in the field continued – his four catches being the joint-highest with the wicket-keeper,
Craig Kieswetter, for the England team. It was Collingwood's captaincy that was most praised, as he led England to their first-ever ICC trophy, hitting the winning runs in their seven-wicket victory over Australia in the final. Collingwood was then rested for the home Test series against Bangladesh, but returned for the five-match ODI series against Australia in June. During the second match, he overtook Alec Stewart's record to become England's all-time leading runscorer in the format. Following poor batting performances in the
2010–11 Ashes series, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. For his performances in 2010, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC. In July 2014, he played for the Rest of the World side in the
Bicentenary Celebration match at
Lord's. In August 2017, he was named in a
World XI side to play three Twenty20 International matches against Pakistan in the
2017 Independence Cup in
Lahore. In the 3-match series, Collingwood only played a single match. == Coaching career ==