Paine will not be satisfied until series wrapped up
Tim Paine warned that Australia have come to retain the Ashes, not just the opening Test, after crushing England at Edgbaston.
“We’re over here to do what most Australian teams have struggled to do, and if we can do it, we’ll be spoken about for quite a long time,” the Australia captain said. “That’s what’s driving us – to come to England in these conditions is difficult for us, as it is for England in Australia – and there’s a big five weeks to come.
“We’re here to win the Ashes; we’ve been quite clear on that for some time. We’re obviously happy. We’re certainly not satisfied with that and tonight will be a different feel to most Test wins we’ve had.”
Australia’s victory came in spite of collapsing to 122 for eight on the first day and England taking a firstinnings lead of 90. “We felt behind in the game for three days, so the way we stuck at it and kept grinding was a real credit to our boys,” Paine said. “The last two days we played superb cricket.”
With Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon to the fore, Australia have now won six of their past seven Test matches against England, alongside a draw in the Melbourne Test in 2017-18. “While Steve is scoring runs and Nathan is taking wickets, we’re a pretty dangerous cricket team,” Paine added.
He admitted that the absence of James Anderson – confined to just four overs in the match – had been a significant boost to Australia. “I would be lying if I said psychologically it did not make a difference to our team and physically to theirs. It is a big win for us, but they lost their premier bowler so we have to be realistic about it.”
In a sign of Australia’s fast-bowling depth, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were omitted at Edgbaston and both could come into contention for the Lord’s Test, which begins a week tomorrow. Australia have a three-day warmup fixture against Worcestershire, beginning tomorrow.
“We think we have a lot of different options for all different kinds of conditions and have got a lot of bases covered,” Paine said. “One of the reasons we picked so many bowlers is because we knew this series was going to be wearing on our bowlers coming out of a World Cup. We now have a decent break between Tests and have two worldclass bowlers sitting on the sidelines raring to go.
“Once we get to Lord’s and see the wicket we will make a decision on what combination to go with.”