Chris Silverwood confident he is 'right man' to lead England despite poor start to Ashes
Coach Chris Silverwood is adamant that he would select the same two teams that got thrashed by Australia in the first two Ashes Tests and believes he is still the right man to lead England.
England lost the opening Test in Brisbane by nine wickets and suffered a 275-run defeat in the second match in Adelaide as they slipped 2-0 behind in the five-Test series.
Asked if his position was in danger given that England have won just one Test from their last 11, Silverwood said: "It always is. When you take a job like this you accept that. It is what it is. Do I believe I'm the right man? Yes, I do or I wouldn't have taken the job in the first place. You're under pressure constantly.
"I do believe I can turn it around. We have had those honest chats and I believe I have the right coaching staff around me to make that happen as well."
Silverwood and Root picked spinner Jack Leach on a green surface in Brisbane and then an all-seam attack on a flat pitch in Adelaide. Silverwood took some responsibility for the two defeats but denied that England got their selection wrong.
"We picked the best attack for those conditions and you look at the attack we had out, there's a lot of experience," Silverwood said.
Silverwood said that England, who have not won an Ashes series in Australia since 2010-11, need to perform better in the remaining three Tests, starting with the Boxing Day match in Melbourne on Sunday.
"We had a really good talk in the dressing room which was needed. We have to be better, it's as simple as that," he said. "It is not just batting and bowling. Look at how many chances we have given up in the field: dropped catches, missed run-outs and everything else.
"Wickets off no-balls are unacceptable. It is a basic error. We have had batting collapses. We have spoken about the two in these games. We have had collapses before and we can't afford to do that."
Away from the troubling Ashes tour, there was more bad news for the England cricket team after fast bowler Jofra Archer was ruled out for the remainder of the winter schedule following a second elbow operation.
Archer, 26, has not played any international cricket since March due to a stress fracture in his right elbow and underwent surgery in May. A recurrence of the same injury meant he was sidelined for the T20 World Cup and the Ashes series, and the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) revealed he had another surgery earlier this month.
"A return to cricket will be determined in time," the ECB statement said, "but Jofra will not be available for any of England's remaining winter series." That would rule the Barbadian-born player out of the January and March tours of the Caribbean.
