Flower demands skill and courage as England batsmen face axe

Published on Monday 30 January 2012 01:58

Andy Flower will be prepared to change England’s losing team to arrest the world Test No 1’s fall from grace in the Middle East.

The England coach has called on the tourists to show skill and courage, and prove they can conquer the demons of spinning Asian pitches, starting by avoiding a series whitewash against Pakistan in Dubai next week.

Flower has found himself delivering an all-too-familiar refrain so far this winter, picking over England defeats – against India in limited-overs cricket and now after losing the first two Tests against Pakistan here to concede this three-match series in under seven days.

There was inevitably more of the same yesterday as he was called to account for the hapless batting which resulted in England’s lowest Test total against Pakistan, and another embarrassing early finish. In difficult conditions, tailor-made for the talents of Pakistan’s spin bowlers, England’s hopes of making a relatively modest target of 145 to level the series foundered as they were all out for 72.

A spectacular sequence of single- figure dismissals dominated the scorebook as England were undone in less than 40 overs, and two-and-a-half hours, when it had seemed they began with a better than even chance of victory.

“We expect to learn and learn quickly and that is a big part of our job, of my job,” said Flower, who spoke of England’s bowling and first-innings competence but could only lament what followed.

“I thought in the first innings some of our batsmen did an excellent job. [Jonathan] Trott and [Alastair] Cook were outstanding in that partnership of 145. [Stuart] Broad was outstanding; he played an aggressive, courageous knock to give us the lead – that was a match-turning performance from him both with ball and bat. But yes, [there were] familiar mistakes. We need our batsmen to learn.” If they do not, or do not appear capable of doing so by next week, time may have run out for someone.

“Continuity of selection has been part of our strength, but very obviously we have to pick players who are most adept at dealing with these conditions,” added Flower. “Indeed, that is what we have tried to do. We have to pick what we think is the best XI to try and win the game. If that means making a change here and there, then we won’t be afraid to do that.”

How then did England’s batsmen go so badly wrong against Abdur Rehman and his Pakistan spin colleagues?

“We didn’t put any pressure on their bowlers in the second innings. We allowed them to bowl and create pressure,” said Flower. “In saying that, the conditions to play against quality spinners were difficult – and we weren’t good enough.

“This is a great challenge for all of us. The issues are not going to disappear. We’ve got another Test, a one-day series, a couple of Twenty20 games and then and we’ve also got Sri Lanka and India before the year is out. So we’ve got to face these issues with skill and courage.”

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