Paul Collingwood is ‘ideal’ for England after ‘bitterly disappointing’ Ashes, says Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes says Paul Collingwood is the ‘ideal’ candidate to take charge of England on their upcoming tour of West Indies after a ‘bitterly disappointing’ Ashes campaign in Australia.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Monday that Collingwood, 45, will take charge on an interim basis for the side’s three-match Test series in the Caribbean next month.

Collingwood had been working as England’s assistant coach since 2019 and takes over the reins from Chris Silverwood, who was relieved of his duties last week in the wake of the Test team’s crushing 4-0 defeat Down Under.

Team director, Ashley Giles, and assistant, Graham Thorpe, have also moved on in recent days, with England looking to hit the reset button after a miserable 2021 that saw them lose nine of their 15 Tests.

‘So much has happened to the England team already this winter and there is still more to come in the West Indies next month,’ Stokes said in his Daily Mirror column.

‘But rather than more of the same, this is a tour that has to be the start of something new and Paul Collingwood is the ideal man to step in and get things underway.

‘This has to be the start of a turnaround for the Test team just like we had for the one day side back in 2015 and that is a huge challenge I want to be a part of overcoming.

‘It was a bitterly disappointing Ashes campaign Down Under, but we have to learn from it and begin the job of building the team back to where we want to be.

‘It will take time, of course it will. Even the white ball team took time to get to the point where we could win a World Cup. It didn’t happen overnight, even if some people seem to think it did.

‘We had some bumps in the road, such as the Champions Trophy semi-final in 2017, but we stuck to our