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| Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground Date: 26-30 December Time: 23:00 GMT (25-29 December) |
| Coverage: Test Match Special and live text commentary, plus clips, features and analysis on the BBC Sport website and app. Daily highlights show on BBC iPlayer from 17:00 GMT |
England’s players had a “brutally honest chat” with coach Chris Silverwood after defeat by Australia in the second Ashes Test, says seamer Mark Wood.
“We obviously review the game, chat about what we did well, what we didn’t do well, but this time it was sterner from Chris Silverwood,” Wood said.
“To hear [Chris Silverwood] speak like that – not because he’s under pressure or anything – but to hear him speak like that rather than just being his usual coaching self, he was actually annoyed and wanted a change.
“Hopefully it comes at the right time for us to catch a spark.”
Silverwood, who took over as coach in 2019, has won one of his past 11 Tests in charge, but says he is still the right man for the job.
Wood revealed that the players met for a ‘very honest chat’ following the defeat in the second Test, with senior players including captain Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, James Anderson and Stuart Broad all having a say.
“Stokesy [Ben Stokes] and Joe Root spoke to the group about… basically a bit of a kick up the bum saying ‘this isn’t good enough’,” Wood said.
“We’ve talked in depth about how things can get better. Not just words or cliched words, we actually set out what we’re going to do in Melbourne practice-wise, what we’re going to do differently.”
Wood featured in the first Test but missed out in the second, with Broad and Anderson returning for the day-night game.
Speaking after the defeat in Adelaide, Root said England’s bowlers bowled the wrong lengths and “needed to be braver” but Wood says “probably the way Rooty phrased it maybe isn’t the way he totally wanted”.
Wood added: “I don’t think there’s any friction between the bowlers and the captain. It’s not like that at all.”
England head to Melbourne needing a win to keep their hopes of regaining the Ashes alive.
“We’ve got to believe we can turn this round,” Wood said. “We haven’t shown our best stuff yet. We know that Australia have played really well. If we can match them then we believe we can win Test matches here.
“We’ve just got to up our game in all three areas. At the minute, Australia have scored 400 twice, we’ve had batting collapses and we’ve dropped catches.
“We’ve got facets of the game that need major work. We’ve now got a couple of days to stop thinking about cricket, get away in Melbourne and enjoy the lead-up to Christmas.”
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