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Australia Test skipper Tim Paine on Monday said England wasn't at their strongest in the series against New Zealand and the Joe Root-led squad will be different in the Ashes this year.
England lost the two-match Test series against New Zealand 0-1 after facing a defeat at the hands of the Kiwis in the second Test by eight wickets at Edgbaston. "New Zealand are a good team. And secondly, I think if we are being realistic, it's a really different team England put on the field to what we're probably going to see in the Ashes. Keeping it in perspective it certainly wasn't England's strongest team," ESPNcricinfo quoted Paine as saying. "We know when they come here they're going to get Ben Stokes, going to have Jofra Archer, they're probably going to play a spinner, and a few other guys particularly the all-rounders who really strengthen their side both ways. We know England are a better side than what they put up. So we'll take a little bit from it but don't read too much into it at the same time," he added. Talking about the series review which was held after the defeat against India, Paine said: "We are all 100 per cent behind Justin Langer and the job he is doing. We had a team review at the end of the Indian series, which is a pretty common factor in professional sports. From Justin to our last player, everyone will get feedback they can improve on." "We will go to the Gold Coast in a couple of weeks to delve a bit deeper into that... we are trying to create an environment to give people feedback. We obviously did not play as well as we (would have) liked against India and we all want to improve, from Justin down," he added. Earlier, there were reports that some of the players in the Australian team were not happy with the coaching style of Langer and it was being said that Cricket Australia would have a word with the head coach. Australia will next square off against West Indies in three ODIs and five T20Is. (ANI)
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