Australian skipper Tim Paine has urged his top order to step up with the willow after England defeated Australia by three wickets in the first One day International to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series on Wednesday (13 June) at The Oval.

However, Paine hailed his bowlers despite their loss, saying they have done a brilliant job against the English batters, but their total 214 was not enough to win the match in England.

The skipper further went on to ask his top order to put their sleeves up, as well as hinted at changing their playing eleven for the next ODI in Cardiff. 

As per reports in cricket.com.au, Paine told reporters after The Oval ODI, “It was really simple; we just didn't get enough runs out of our top five. You don't win too many one-day games when the highest score out of your top five is 22 or 23 runs.”

The 33-year-old further added, “Potentially it's something we spoke a lot about and we will continue to look at each game when we get to the grounds and see the wickets. We've got enough batting there to score more than 214. Would one more batter have made a difference? I'm not sure. It all comes down to your top five batters in one-day cricket.”

However, Tim admitted that the Australian players have been working hard at the nets; they only need to translate what they are working on in the nets on the field to achieve success.

He signed off by saying, “It's something the whole group has been working on and something we speak about a lot. It's a work in progress, we know we haven't been fantastic at it, but we are training really hard at it and if we can get some set batters in when they start, it would make a big difference. It's going to be up to our guys to translate what they are working on in the nets ... sometimes that's a little bit more difficult than it may seem under pressure.”