'If we continue with the same brand of cricket we will scare a lot of sides,' says Collingwood

It has been easy of late to get confused over who exactly is the captain of England. There is Andrew Strauss, of course, who led the side to the Ashes last year – but then there's Alastair Cook, too, who oversaw a very successful tour of Bangladesh in Strauss's absence last winter. And no one, surely, could now forget Paul Collingwood, the man who guided England to their first ever limited-overs trophy, the World Twenty20, in Barbados on Sunday.

Collingwood himself, though, has no doubts over who is England's real skipper. Looking bronzed and barely able to keep a broad grin from his face, the Durham man landed at Gatwick yesterday morning with his team. He has enjoyed a remarkable few weeks leading his country but the success does not appear to have gone to his head as England contemplate a Test series against Bangladesh that begins in eight days' time.

"Andrew Strauss is our captain, in the one-day and Test formats," he said. "My job is solely Twenty20 – there's no extra pressure on Strauss coming back into the side. He's a fantastic leader.

"A lot of this success we've had over the past few weeks can go down to the values that he [Strauss] and Andy Flower have incorporated over the past year. We're starting to see a lot of the team ethics that we've incorporated helping the team to gel together and become a strong unit."

The England coach Flower was equally keen to quash any suggestion that Strauss's absence in his side's greatest one-day hour might be a worry for the Middlesex man. "He will come back into the side and there will be no problem whatsoever," he said. "He is a fine leader and a fine player. It should happen seamlessly."

Flower will hope that the sort of attacking, exciting cricket that England played in the Caribbean can be equally seamlessly incorporated into their Test and 50-over play. It is certainly what Collingwood hopes to see happen. "The brand of cricket that we've played over the last few weeks has been fantastic," he said. "The confidence, the self-belief that we showed on the big occasion on Sunday was pleasing.

"It's a brand of cricket that we're going to keep trying to improve. We've got to adapt it to different conditions – we've got a 50-over World Cup coming up next year in the sub-continent. I'm pretty certain that Strauss and Flower will want us to continue with that same type of cricket and I'm sure if we go out with that same mentality we're going to scare a lot of sides in the way that we play."

Key to England's success in playing attacking cricket were two young batsmen, namely Craig Kieswetter and Eoin Morgan. Flower refused to be drawn on whether either might be in the reckoning for a Test debut at Lord's next week but it is clear that both have impressed the men that matter in the England set-up. "We'll make our decisions [on the Test side] later this week," Flower said. "They both look like very good players and they handled the pressure of a World Cup tournament well."

As Flower acknowledged, England have a packed schedule over the next 12 months – players will be rested when they need to be, he promised – but already minds are turning to the Ashes in Australia this coming winter. Collingwood is clearly delighted that it was the Aussies rather than anyone else who had been so comfortably defeated in the final.

"One of the good things [about this triumph] was playing Australia in the final," he said. "They were unbeaten, and to have beaten them in the way that we did was satisfying. It is a different form of the game but the confidence we have gained as a group will serve us well."

For now the focus is strictly on Bangladesh, though, and Flower made clear that there will be no 2005 Ashes-style hangover from this victory – as indeed there wasn't after last year's win over the Australians. "The guys have celebrated in the Caribbean," he said. "There might be a couple more low-key celebrations but there will be no problem with the guys keeping their feet on the ground. This team has shown that it can keep things in perspective."

Few could deny that, although Collingwood's suggestion that this win "was up there with the Ashes" may raise some eyebrows. He admitted the celebrations in Barbados had been "lively" but he, like Flower (who said his Twenty20 captain "epitomises the English fighting spirit") is keen to get on with making England an ever more fearsome side. "We want to become better and better," he said. "We are desperate to continue with this brand of cricket and hopefully that will bring us more silverware."