Paul Collingwood joined England's under-fire Ashes campaign yesterday hell bent on silencing the Australian hecklers if he is given an unexpected opportunity to wear the whites in Friday's third Test.

The Durham all-rounder has been a key member of England's one-day squad for the last 18 months and was preparing to switch from Melbourne, where he has been playing club cricket for Richmond, to Adelaide and begin preparations for the forthcoming triangular series with the other one-day specialists.

That build-up period has been put on hold for now after he received a welcome call to join up with the Test squad as cover for injuries to Michael Vaughan (shoulder) and John Crawley (thigh).

"I've been out here playing in Australia for the last five weeks trying to get my fitness up for the one-day series, but he is now fully recovered and keen to fulfil a lifelong dream of playing Test cricket.

"That's been my goal ever since I started playing cricket,'' said Collingwood, who has played 25 one-day internationals for England since his debut against Pakistan at Edgbaston last year.

"It's always been a bit annoying about being labelled a one-day specialist and this call has now given me the opportunity to go to the nets and try and impress - I know there are injuries, so who knows what might happen?''

Should Collingwood force his way into the selection plans and persuade the tourists to change the balance of the side by playing seven specialist batsmen, it will also give him an opportunity to silence the Australian critics that have only been too keen to remind him of English cricket's shortcomings.

"I got a lot of stick two years ago when I played over here and it's even tougher now,'' he admitted.

"Anyone you speak to thinks we're the worse team in the world, but I think we've improved quite a bit over the last few year and I'm very positive about English cricket.

"I've been to a few dinners with former Test captains and things like that since I've been over here and some of the comments about the England team just baffle me - it's just dog's abuse.''

Collingwood was having his first net session with the England squad this afternoon with the tourists hoping Andrew Caddick would prove his fitness after sustaining a back spasm in the second Test defeat in Adelaide.

Caddick was given a steroid injection into his back following the team's arrival in Perth in an effort to speed up his recovery and he was due to be given a thorough fitness test today.