tooextracool
International Coach
oh they believe they can win this time i can assure you, ask any cricketer in the english side and they'll tell you they think they can win. but you know precisely what happens if england starts off poorly, all off that belief just crashes. this english side seems to be one of the more resillient sides of recent times, but players like harmison, trescothick, giles etc really will have problems if australia gets on top of them.Craig said:How about belief? It is just as important IMO.
Trescothick, Thorpe, and Butcher have played in at least two losing Ashes series (Iknow Butcher and Thorpe have played more, but you know what I mean), and to an extent Ashley Giles.
Hoggard, Harmison, Vaughan, Robert Key have all played in one losing Ashes series each (maybe more but I forget and not really counting Simon Jones who bowled only 7 overs), and really only Strauss, Flintoff, G. Jones, and Anderson yet to play in an Ashes series.
They also have to belief that is Australia get a good start, or dominate a period of play, that they must believe that they can fight back and dominate. and when in the field they must look to make it 11 on two and put pressure on Australia and keep it on them. It only takes a nick through the slips etc. to go for a four and the pressure has gone. And anybody who has read Steve Waugh's tour dairies will know he has talked about his.
England can win, they just have to believe in it enough (and play well enough), and have the desire and hunger to do it, then I shouldn't see why they can't. Look at Greece in Euro 2004 despite having really no hope of winning by the experts (not even the players thought they could win it before the tournament).
I would like to see England win it for once, just so we have somebody else to dominate.
the thing that i didnt capture which is almost essential is fielding, hopefully this time we finally hold on to our catches. this is easily one of the worst australian catching outfits we've seen for a while, and if england can capture that aspect of the game(unlike all other ashes series in the past), and with butcher probably not in the starting lineup that looks pretty likely, we can really put up a fight.