Collingwood's form for Durham in 2001 earned him a call-up to the England One Day International (ODI) squad, selected for the NatWest Series against Pakistan and Australia that summer, becoming the 162nd to play for England in ODI cricket. He was not particularly successful on his ODI debut in June 2001, scoring only two runs and taking no wickets against Pakistan at Edgbaston, and doing poorly (20 runs in four innings and no wickets) in the rest of the series. Despite this, the selectors showed confidence in him by choosing him for the 2001–02 one-day tour of Zimbabwe, where he took his first ODI wicket, that of Dion Ebrahim in the Third ODI at Harare Sports Club. He starred with the bat in the Fourth ODI at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, with a match-winning 77, and made an unbeaten 56 in the final ODI, also in Bulawayo, helping England secure a 5–0 whitewash.