ADELAIDE: England coach Trevor Bayliss says his team left “a
few scars” on Australia in the Adelaide Test, suggesting the home
side’s second-innings batting performance will have some players feeling
“nervous”.
The fighting talk came after England slumped
to a crushing 120-run defeat in the second Ashes Test at Adelaide,
leaving the tourists trailing 2-0 and on the verge of losing the
five-Test series.
Despite succumbing again, Bayliss was
upbeat about his bowlers skittling Australia for 138 in the second
innings, leaving England with a chance of chasing down a record 354-run
victory target.
“We have got a few scars there with the
Australian team,” Bayliss told the BBC. “There will be a few who have
missed out and a few who will be nervous.
“They’ve got four good bowlers and we’ve shown we can
compete with them for a period of time. We’ve just got to do it for
longer.
“If we can perform to our ability for longer periods of time we’ll win games. The belief in dressing room is definitely there.”
Bayliss
said the team played well in final days of the Adelaide day-night Test,
but they needed to make more than 220 runs in an innings to stand a
chance in Perth.
“If we do that well we can put more pressure on Australia than we did on this match,” he said.
Australia
head into the third Test with all-rounder Mitch Marsh recalled to the
squad, with the home side conscious of protecting star fast bowlers
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins with the series still
alive and three Tests remaining.
Marsh, brother of
Adelaide Test centurion Shaun Marsh, last played a Test on Australia’s
tour of India in March and required a full shoulder reconstruction after
an injury in the Bangalore Test.
But he is confident he
can contribute if selected, with middle-order batsman Peter Handscomb
likely to be dropped if Australia opt for Marsh.
“As an all-rounder in the Australian team with our attack I’m obviously not going to be bowling 30 to 40 overs a game,” he said.
“But I’ve worked hard over the last eight months to get my body into a
position where I’m now playing again as an all-rounder so that’s really
exciting.”
Bayliss clearly does not think that any more
practice is the key for England’s batsmen and on Thursday named only
Moeen Ali from the side that lost in Adelaide in an England XI to face a
Cricket Australia XI in a two-day tour match in Perth.
The rest of the team is made up of the squad members who did not play in
the second Test and six players from the England Lions team, who are
training in the city.
