PAINE INJURED, BUT THE SIGNS AREN’T ALL BAD

TIM Paine has a badly cut mouth, Billy Stanlake has a badly cut big toe and Australia’s one-day reputation has a bruise growing bigger by the match.

But as the losses continue to mount, there’s a bit of fight in the team being formed by new coach Justin Langer and a level of confidence that the bumps it is copping right now aren’t knockout blows.

A 38-run loss to England in the second one-day clash in Cardiff was the sixth in seven games to the old enemy and the record of the reigning World Cup champs makes for ugly reading.

The absence of several stars, including banned batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner along with frontline bowlers Mitchell Starc and Patrick Cummins have played their part in the two defeats on this tour.

A rotating top order through the two games, with D’Arcy Short brought in to open with Travis Head while Aaron Finch dropped down to No. 5, isn’t helping matters.

But the rot had set in long before that and Australia has now lost 13 of its past 15 ODIs.

Since that epic World Cup win at the MCG in 2015, the reigning champions have a 27-28 win-loss record having seen a revolving door of players in that time, with several retirements as well.

Australia racked up 304 at Sophia Gardens, including a mammoth 131 from Shaun Marsh as it fell short of England’s 342 and Paine, sporting stitches in his lip after copping a bad bounce in the field, said he believed his team was not being outclassed by the world’s No. 1 side.

Instead he said getting both the batting and bowling to fire on the same day would see an immediate turn in results.

“I think our best cricket is good enough to beat these guys,” Paine said.