England head coach Brendon McCullum has urged his team’s supporters to “keep the faith” after the Three Lions suffered two batting collapses to hand Australia victory in the opening Ashes Test in Perth.
Former England captain Stuart Broad says the Kiwi now faces his toughest psychological challenge in lifting the squad after a harrowing two-day defeat.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Pat Cummins has “half a chance” of returning for the Brisbane Test as he continues to recover from a back issue.
McCullum demands camaraderie
While recognising the gravity of the defeat in Perth, McCullum is refusing to let the result define his side’s preparations for the second Test.
“We are bitterly disappointed for us, but also for all the fans who have turned up here to support us so well,” he told Sky Sports.
“I’d say keep the faith. We have a talented group, we believe in each other and are pretty level.
“That doesn’t mean it won’t hurt. But our best method to get back into it is doing what we’ve done before under pressure, which is staying tight and keep moving towards the target.
“We’ll head to Brisbane with high hopes and high expectations and see where we’re at.
“We can’t carry this [result] onto the next. We’ve been trying to insulate against things going wrong for a while.
“For us, that connectivity and camaraderie is something we pride ourselves on. We will need it over the next few days.”
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Broad backs ‘psychologist’ McCullum
England legend Broad has backed McCullum to turn things around despite recent performances not being up to scratch.
“When I look at him, I don’t necessarily say ‘cricket coach’. I think more of a psychologist, a manager of the minds,” Broad explained to reporters.
“This is now his biggest challenge as England coach without a doubt. You come to Australia full of hope, get ahead of the game and throw the game away.
“What he tends to do is sit you all in a big circle and go around the group, getting opinions from everyone.
“I am absolutely certain he will mention how England got themselves in a winning position and he will have evaluated the collapse in the second innings as ‘we know we have to do better’.
“He will be aware he has a lot of work to do on the psychology of the guys.”
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Cummins nears return
For Australia, captain Cummins is finally nearing a return to action after sustaining a back injury in September.
“It’s feeling good,” Cummins said on Fox Sports TV.
“I had a couple of good sessions in Perth this week, so having a big day where I’d bowl around 10 overs then a couple of quieter days and then going again.
“It’s on track and pulling up pretty well. “[I’m] half a chance for the next game.
“I’m pretty hopeful and it’s probably better than it was a few weeks ago.”
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Head eyes opening spot
Elsewhere, Travis Head – who plundered 123 off just 83 balls in the home team’s second innings in Perth – is potentially in line to open the batting again in Brisbane, especially given Usman Khawaja’s continuing fitness troubles.
“I think it gave us a little bit of a lens potentially to the future in terms of adjusting batting orders in second innings,” Australia head coach Andrew McDonald admitted to the media regarding Head’s change of position.
“You do it in one-day cricket – you front-end some of your innings if you know the back end is going to be difficult to chase down the runs.
“It’s a conversation that we have had.
We’ve had a conversation around Travis opening the batting for a long period of time, and Trav has been on the record this week around that also.”
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