Collingwood rules out Kieswetter

Collingwood rules out Kieswetter

Paul Collingwood has no intention of parachuting Craig Kieswetter in to the Twenty20 side to face Pakistan on Friday.

However, Collingwood admitted that Kieswetter did everything right on his first day as an England-qualified player.

Johannesburg-born Kieswetter, whose four-year residency came up on Wednesday, celebrated by clubbing an eye-catching 81 off 66 balls as the Lions upset their senior colleagues by five wickets in a warm-up match in Abu Dhabi.

Captain Collingwood was suitably impressed by the Somerset wicketkeeper-batsman but was clear he would not be added to the existing squad for the Pakistan double header.

"We've pretty much got the side set in our minds and we've got a squad that is here that we'll choose from," he said.

"All the guys yesterday had a certain pressure to perform well and he (Kieswetter) certainly did that but there is no temptation to bring him in for tomorrow's game.

"We will have to be at the top of our game to beat them but we believe we've got the skills and the players here."

The current opening partnership of choice is Joe Denly and Jonathan Trott and Collingwood vowed the pair would be given a chance to forge an understanding ahead of the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean at the end of April.

"You've got to back the guys and give them enough time to understand each other's games for them to build and perform well," he said.

"We've chopped and changed around a lot at the top of the order in the past but we believe we've got two guys who can score runs quickly."


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