Dawid Malan: England squad upbeat about Ashes series... and 'hell-raisers' tag is pure fiction

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Dawid Malan30 November 2017

To be honest, within the England cricket squad, we don’t think the two teams in this Ashes series are evenly matched.

We don’t think it. We know it.

The history books will forever show Australia won the First Test in Brisbane by 10 wickets, but everybody involved knows it was no thrashing.

In our first innings, we reached 246 for four and were within one big score of posting 350 or 400 and effectively taking the game away from the Australians. I take responsibility for missing that opportunity. Well set on 56, I misjudged the line of a Mitchell Starc bouncer and was caught at square leg. In the end, we were bowled out for 302 — 50 or 60 runs short.

Then, when Australia batted, we reduced them to 209 for seven and seemed set to secure a significant first-innings lead. Instead, in what proved a pivotal session on the third afternoon, we allowed Steve Smith and Pat Cummins to add 66 for their eighth wicket and the home team were able to scramble to 328 all out… 50 or 60 runs more than they should have scored.

That was the difference and the match: small margins.

So, now we trail 1-0 in the series and we carry a little bit more pressure into this week’s Second Test, to be played with a pink ball under lights in Adelaide.

We are not remotely downhearted and we know precisely what we must do to get back into this series.

First, we must bat longer and convert 50s and 60s into centuries; this will put more overs into the legs of the Australian seamers, denying them the opportunity to bowl in short bursts and also put more responsibility on Nathan Lyon, their high-quality spinner.

Second, we must fight fire with fire and bowl at their tail-enders with the same aggression they so effectively unleashed on our No8, 9, 10 and 11 batsmen.

Collectively, and as individuals, there is no lack of clarity. This is the Ashes, so there’s no lack of hype either.

The ‘Jonny Bairstow headbutt’ saga was nonsense, blown up out of literally nothing at all, cannily leaked into the media to unsettle one of our important players and milked for all it is worth when Cameron Bancroft and Smith giggled through a slapstick press conference.

(EPA)
Darren England/EPA

It’s all good copy, of course, but there was method in the Australian mirth and they fuelled the false caricature of this England squad as indisciplined thugs and drunks. This is just not true.

The England Test squad is totally committed to being successful, training and playing with real intensity and spending less time in the bar than any other group of players in my experience. Some reports have referred to a midnight curfew being imposed on us; from what I have seen so far on this tour, everybody is always in bed well before midnight. To suggest we are a wild bunch of hell-raisers is pure fiction.

Walk into our team room in down-time and you’ll find players chatting, drinking coffee, playing FIFA or Call of Duty against each other, working out how to wrestle back the momentum and win the Second Test in Adelaide.

For my part, I am loving every minute. The roar of 36,000 spectators at the Gabba was fantastic and the Australians are formidable opponents, not so much because of their sledging, which is standard, but because they play with such raw aggression.

Our challenge is to match their fight and then overcome them. Nothing complicated.

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