England skipper wants his team to draw inspiration from last series’ comeback from a similar position
BRISBANE: England’s players hope to erase memories of the demoralising defeat to Australia by getting it right for Friday’s second Adelaide Test, captain Andrew Flintoff said. Flintoff welcomed the back-to-back scheduling of the first two Tests because it meant his players could not dwell on their 277-run caning in the first Ashes Test.
“It’s not a bad thing to have a Test match coming around straight away, we can sink our teeth into it, go straight into it,” Flintoff said.
“We can’t mope around, we’ve got four Test matches to play and to be thrown into another one at this stage is probably the best thing that can happen for us,” the English skipper added.
Flintoff conceded England needed to make huge improvements before Adelaide after a Gabba performance where too many players succumbed to big-match nerves, the bowling attack conceded 804 runs and strike paceman Steve Harmison spectacularly self-destructed.
But the inspirational all-rounder insisted morale in the dressing room remained high and England’s Ashes defence remained on track, pointing out that England lost the first game of the last series but still emerged victorious. “The dressing room’s been fine, obviously we’re disappointed to go 1-0 down, but there are some characters in that room, some real tough lads,” he said.
“Some of us have been in this position before, 1-0 down in an Ashes series with four to play, we’re going to take all the positives we can from this game forward to Adelaide.” He said the biggest positive was England’s performance on the fourth day, when Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen flayed Australia’s bowlers during a 153-run fourth-wicket stand.
“That partnership showed what good players they are and took a bit of pride from the game for us,” he said. Flintoff defended Harmison, who opened the series with a monstrous wide delivery that sprayed to second slip and came away from the Test with one wicket for 177 runs.
“The big question. Everyone’s asking about Steve and it’s fair to say Harmy’s not bowling as well as he can do, he knows that,” Flintoff said of the speedster, whose aggression helped take on Australia in the last series but who became a figure of Gabba ridicule. “He’s desperate to get into this series and hopefully, everything will come right for him.”
