(Reuters) – England’s young batters have been given a “wake-up call” by Australia in the Ashes series and must use it to kick-start their careers, assistant coach Graham Thorpe said.
England find themselves down 3-0 in the five-match series, with none of their batters scoring a century amid struggles against Australia’s superb pace attack.
But Thorpe, who scored more than 6,000 runs in 100 tests for England, said that the players had started working on solutions to their problems.
“With some players it’s a wake-up call and could actually kick-start their careers because they’ve started training in a very different way. They don’t waste time fluffing, hitting half-volleys,” Thorpe told British media.
“They’ve come up against some very good bowling attacks, who have been able to have a little watch of them and see where some of their Achilles’ heels are, and they’re having to face that reality.”
Thorpe said batters had to adapt to the demands of test cricket, which he described as “10 times harder” than the domestic game.
“County cricket is what it is, you’ve got to lift players out of there, then educate them in international cricket. When I look at the batting in general, I try to teach the basics of the game,” Thorpe added.
“We’re trying to still educate some of the younger guys into… the rhythm of test batting, playing situations in the game, doing it for long periods. Some of them haven’t been able to do it yet. Some people’s journeys are in different places.”
Thorpe will take charge of England during the fourth test in Sydney from Jan. 5-9 while head coach Chris Silverwood isolates in Melbourne after a family member tested positive for COVID-19.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)
