It’s hard to believe, but England’s assistant coach Paul Collingwood, 47, did not watch a single ball of the recent World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval in London where Australia outclassed India by 209 runs on Sunday. Collingwood, a three-time Ashes winner, however, did follow the end-of-day scores.

‘Not sure of favourites tag’

When mid-day asked him if the WTC triumph gave Pat Cummins & Co a slight advantage over England ahead of the big Ashes contest, the former England captain replied: “I’m not sure [about] who has the advantage. I don’t know whether we look for favourites or not. But the most exciting thing is you’ve got two teams at the top of their game and they go head-to-head and this is what Test cricket means.