• England's limited-overs coach says some pain is necessary
• 'All we ask for is a bit of understanding'
England will stick to their guns when their post-Ashes one-day walkabout moves to Birmingham on Wednesday, as they and Australia return to the city where David Warner tangled with Joe Root during the Champions Trophy way back in June.
Ashley Giles, who, as England's limited-overs coach, is growing accustomed to losing key players between their Test engagements, conceded that the 88-run drubbing in the second game of the NatWest series at Old Trafford on Sunday – after the opening washout at Headingley – was an example of the need "to suffer some pain to get some gain".
But he insisted that even without the five senior players who have been given an extended break, this England squad retains the ability to surprise Australia – and ruled out any immediate change in strategy or personnel.
England were widely thought to have been a bowler light in Manchester, as Michael Clarke and George Bailey cracked a record-breaking fourth-wicket partnership of 155 in an imposing Australia total of 315, leading to suggestions that they might drop a specialist batsman – Michael Carberry, perhaps, or even Root – to allow the inclusion of either Jamie Overton or, more likely, Chris Jordan to bolster the seam attack.
But Giles said: "At this stage I don't see us making any huge changes. I've heard a lot about the balance of the side. We started with that balance [five specialist bowlers] in the one-day series against New Zealand [in June, before the Champions Trophy] and lost those first two games to them, so we decided we needed extra depth in batting.
"So we moved [Jos] Buttler to seven and brought Ravi [Bopara] in at six. Ravi's record is extremely good in one-day cricket, and he's done extremely well in this last few months. I don't believe we are just fiddling overs. Ben Stokes is playing as a third seamer – he is an improving bowler, he has good skills and can bowl mid-80s and upwards, and has the potential to do that role on its own. Otherwise the balance is what we played in the Champions Trophy when we were very successful. But when you have inexperience you are going to have to suffer some pain to get some gain and that's a little bit of what we are looking at."
He described the suggestion of Michael Vaughan, his former England captain, that those who have bought tickets for the series are being short-changed, as "harsh".
"All we ask for is a bit of understanding about what we're trying to do," Giles added. "It's not just about winning the next game. [But] we don't take losing games lightly. It's not about giving games away and it is not about robbing the public of the right to watch our best players.
"We've got to get the balance right and in this squad we've got some very exciting talent to watch and we're still very capable of winning games."
Giles committed to giving Carberry "a run through this series", despite consecutive failures for the Hampshire opener at Old Trafford and before that in Ireland, when he also dropped two chances in the field – where he usually excels. He also backed Root to improve on his Old Trafford performance, when he made 3 from 15 balls and got off the mark when he was dropped off his 11th – suggesting to some that he might also benefit from a rest.
"Joe's fine – the same mischievous hard-working Joe," said Giles, who was in charge when Root and several other England players celebrated their Champions Trophy win at Edgbaston at the Walkabout. "He's still in the nets now. He loves it."
Australia's Adam Voges, when asked how it felt to return to Birmingham, said, with a wry smile: "We didn't have quite the Champions Trophy campaign we would have liked to have." Warner is back home in Sydney, having been dropped for this series, but Australia will have seven survivors from the team who slipped to a tame 48-run defeat at Edgbaston on 8 June – Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Fawad Ahmed and the captain Michael Clarke, who was then suffering from his back problems, are the four new faces – whereas England have six.
Giles also had an unsubtle message for Samit Patel, following his recent public grumble about his apparent omission from England's plans. "While I can understand Samit's frustrations I'd like to know where he gets into the side right now because we've got some very good cricketers in that XI," he said. "He just needs to keep working hard, keep putting the figures on the board – and working hard elsewhere as well." Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
• 'All we ask for is a bit of understanding'
England will stick to their guns when their post-Ashes one-day walkabout moves to Birmingham on Wednesday, as they and Australia return to the city where David Warner tangled with Joe Root during the Champions Trophy way back in June.
Ashley Giles, who, as England's limited-overs coach, is growing accustomed to losing key players between their Test engagements, conceded that the 88-run drubbing in the second game of the NatWest series at Old Trafford on Sunday – after the opening washout at Headingley – was an example of the need "to suffer some pain to get some gain".
But he insisted that even without the five senior players who have been given an extended break, this England squad retains the ability to surprise Australia – and ruled out any immediate change in strategy or personnel.
England were widely thought to have been a bowler light in Manchester, as Michael Clarke and George Bailey cracked a record-breaking fourth-wicket partnership of 155 in an imposing Australia total of 315, leading to suggestions that they might drop a specialist batsman – Michael Carberry, perhaps, or even Root – to allow the inclusion of either Jamie Overton or, more likely, Chris Jordan to bolster the seam attack.
But Giles said: "At this stage I don't see us making any huge changes. I've heard a lot about the balance of the side. We started with that balance [five specialist bowlers] in the one-day series against New Zealand [in June, before the Champions Trophy] and lost those first two games to them, so we decided we needed extra depth in batting.
"So we moved [Jos] Buttler to seven and brought Ravi [Bopara] in at six. Ravi's record is extremely good in one-day cricket, and he's done extremely well in this last few months. I don't believe we are just fiddling overs. Ben Stokes is playing as a third seamer – he is an improving bowler, he has good skills and can bowl mid-80s and upwards, and has the potential to do that role on its own. Otherwise the balance is what we played in the Champions Trophy when we were very successful. But when you have inexperience you are going to have to suffer some pain to get some gain and that's a little bit of what we are looking at."
He described the suggestion of Michael Vaughan, his former England captain, that those who have bought tickets for the series are being short-changed, as "harsh".
"All we ask for is a bit of understanding about what we're trying to do," Giles added. "It's not just about winning the next game. [But] we don't take losing games lightly. It's not about giving games away and it is not about robbing the public of the right to watch our best players.
"We've got to get the balance right and in this squad we've got some very exciting talent to watch and we're still very capable of winning games."
Giles committed to giving Carberry "a run through this series", despite consecutive failures for the Hampshire opener at Old Trafford and before that in Ireland, when he also dropped two chances in the field – where he usually excels. He also backed Root to improve on his Old Trafford performance, when he made 3 from 15 balls and got off the mark when he was dropped off his 11th – suggesting to some that he might also benefit from a rest.
"Joe's fine – the same mischievous hard-working Joe," said Giles, who was in charge when Root and several other England players celebrated their Champions Trophy win at Edgbaston at the Walkabout. "He's still in the nets now. He loves it."
Australia's Adam Voges, when asked how it felt to return to Birmingham, said, with a wry smile: "We didn't have quite the Champions Trophy campaign we would have liked to have." Warner is back home in Sydney, having been dropped for this series, but Australia will have seven survivors from the team who slipped to a tame 48-run defeat at Edgbaston on 8 June – Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Fawad Ahmed and the captain Michael Clarke, who was then suffering from his back problems, are the four new faces – whereas England have six.
Giles also had an unsubtle message for Samit Patel, following his recent public grumble about his apparent omission from England's plans. "While I can understand Samit's frustrations I'd like to know where he gets into the side right now because we've got some very good cricketers in that XI," he said. "He just needs to keep working hard, keep putting the figures on the board – and working hard elsewhere as well." Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.