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| June 28, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1426 |
Gilchrist believes England can compete
BIRMINGHAM (England), June 27: Australia return to Edgbaston on Wednesday with vice-captain Adam Gilchrist believes that England could now compete with the world champions. Back in September, England beat Australia by six wickets at Edgbaston in the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy to end a run of 14 successive one-day defeats against their oldest opponents.
The teams now return to the Birmingham venue for Tuesday’s ‘dead’ day/night triangular series One-day International ahead of Saturday’s Lord’s final (Bangladesh cannot qualify for the showpiece match after losing to England at Old Trafford on Sunday).
England have won their last five Test series to fire home hopes they can at last regain the Ashes for the first time in 19 years.
So far in the Triangular the teams are level at 1-1 after England’s seven wicket win at Bristol on June 19 and Australia’s 57-run success at Chester-le-Street four days later.
“It’s been a great tussle so far. The excitement level over here has been amazing,” wicket-keeper Gilchrist told reporters at Edgbaston on Monday.
On Australia’s last Ashes tour four years ago, the dynamic left-hander smashed 152 in the Edgbaston Test to set up an innings and 118 run win.
But he said it was the memory of September’s game that was most vivid in his mind. “It justified the optimism in English cricket on the back of the results that team had produced over the last 12-18 months, definitely. I’m certain it would have given a lot of English players the reinforcement they’d improved.
“They’ve got a great unit going and a collective spirit there and a few individuals would have walked away from that day thinking ‘we’re certainly bridging the gap’.
“I don’t think there’s any secret there, certainly at Test level and I think in one-day cricket the balance of their side, the options they’ve got, they’ve got a very competitive, strong team,” the Western Australia gloveman, recently voted the world’s ‘most scary’ batsman in a poll of his fellow international players, explained.
“It wasn’t just that day, part of the stepping process they are heading in right direction and they certainly are.”
England have often been criticised for a ‘lack of intensity’ in recent Test series against Australia.
But Gilchrist said the reason Michael Vaughan’s men had grounds for optimism this time was down to improved skill levels.
“I’ve never walked there and not felt intensity. I remember the Test match here four years ago, when Mark Butcher took four wickets and changed the momentum of the game a little bit.
“Darren Gough was charging in and the crowd were singing ‘England, England’. I felt pretty intimidated for that moment. I’ve never doubted their ability to take the fight to us. It’s more a skill thing. That and the leadership they’ve got at the moment, they’ve obviously gelled together really well.”
Earlier in the triangular, Australia suffered a shock five-wicket defeat against Bangladesh in Cardiff on June 18, one of cricket’s biggest upsets.
But Gilchrist put Australia’s start down to the fact they’d had a more than two-month break since the end of their tour of New Zealand.
“There’s no doubt there was a rustiness there early and we got caught out and exposed.
“I guess lay-offs of those lengths for any team in world cricket are seem to be so rare maybe we just did under-estimate how much it was going to take to get back into it.
“We certainly never wanted to lose to Bangladesh, we didn’t want to lose any game on this trip, but the most important games are still to come ,” added Gilchrist, who said Australia had adopted a “no panic” approach.
And he insisted Tuesday’s game would still have meaning even though the first Test, at Lord’s, doesn’t start until July 22.
“We’ll both be going flat out and it’s a great opportunity to keep learning more about the opponents.”—AFP
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