England head coach and chief selector Chris Silverwood has on Monday (October 11) claimed that the tourists will be very competitive in the upcoming Ashes 2021-22 against Australia this winter.
Silverwood is also very confident that England can do something very special in Australia in the upcoming high-profile five-match Test series, as they are seeking to reclaim the urn for the first time since 2015 when they resume the Ashes rivalry from December 8 in Brisbane.
The head coach further revealed that England will be looking to take a cue from India's game plan during their successful tour of Australia earlier this year. It was an unbelievable turnaround from Team India, as an injury-ravaged second-string Indian team staged an incredible comeback from down 0-1 to beat Australia 2-1 in the four-match Test series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year.
As reported by Cricbuzz, Silverwood said: “I think we'll be very competitive (in the Ashes). We look at the fact Australia has been very strong over the years and we have to respect them. But we have over the last 6-7 months played the top two teams in the world, learned a hell of a lot.”
The coach continued, “We look at India, how do they go about their business. They've shown a game plan that was successful over there and so we will be learning from them. There is a strong belief we can do something very special.”
He also said England has become battle-hardened having played top sides like India in recent times.
Silverwood added, “We are battle-hardened. We had some success along the way and we've proven we can compete with India. The important thing for me is our players have seen what the best in the world look like, they've played against it, they've felt what it is to have them push against us.
We've also tasted success against them. Look at the Headingley Test when we came back very strong, which shows that we have got the skills within the ranks to take 20 wickets and push the best. So I see that as a real positive, a real galvanizer to the group, to better handle pressure now that they see it more and more, which is great.”
The England coach also said his coaching staff watched how Indian bowlers operated during their Test series in Australia and said the tourists will make the most of their skills in the Ashes series.
He further explained, “We watched how India performed in Australia (last winter) and we tried to learn lessons from them. What we will be doing is looking back over the plans India used and adapting any of those to what our bowling attack is.”
Silverwood signed off by saying, “How do we get the best out of the bowling attack we have got rather than worrying about what we haven't got. There is nothing we can do about that so it's pointless. We will be using the skills we have in the best possible way and I do believe that we can make it work.”
(With PTI Inputs)
