Australia’s batsmen told to toughen up

Australia’s top order must be that “little bit tougher” if the team is to win the fourth Test against England according to batting coach Michael di Venuto.

The tourists suffered two significant collapses as England won the third Test at Edgbaston by eight wickets inside three days on Friday to go 2-1 up in the five-match Ashes series.

In its first innings in Birmingham, Australia lost five wickets for 60 runs and the second saw four fall for 30.

Australia has not won an Ashes series in Britain since 2001 and the suspicion remains that, for all its recent success, it is ‘flat-track bullies’ whose batsmen struggle on pitches offering sideways movement — as was the case at Edgbaston.

Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, has scored 28 Test hundreds and has a career average touching fifty.

But the star batsman has yet to get going in this Ashes series after scores of 10 and three at Edgbaston left him with a series aggregate of 94 runs in six innings at an average of under 19.

But while Clarke is set to keep his place, fellow batsman Adam Voges could be replaced by Shaun Marsh for the fourth Test, which starts at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge on Thursday, given his series average of 14.60.

Both sides have made much of their desire to play ‘aggressive’ cricket but di Venuto, a former Australia ODI specialist but not capped at Test level, suggested ‘smarter’ cricket was the order of the day.

Trevor Bayliss, England’s Australian coach, had no intention of writing off Clarke.

“Michael has had a long career and had a few runs of form like this in the past, and he’s come back from them,” said Bayliss, who prior to taking the England job was coaching at New South Wales — Clarke’s home state.

“The last thing I want to do or England want to do is forecast his demise — because that’s just giving him ammunition to come out and score a heap of runs.”

Broad ready

Meanwhile, Stuart Broad has said he’s ready to lead England’s attack as it bids for an Ashes-clinching win against Australia at his Trent Bridge home ground in the absence of James Anderson.

Broad is set to be England’s senior bowler in Nottingham after longtime new-ball partner Anderson was ruled out of the fourth Test with a side injury suffered during an eight-wicket win at Edgbaston.

Not only is Anderson England’s most successful Test bowler of all-time, with 413 wickets — including an Ashes-best six for 47 at Edgbaston — he also has a brilliant record at Trent Bridge.

The 33-year-old swing and seam bowler has taken 53 wickets in eight Tests there at an average of 19.24 with England’s victory in the 2013 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge yielding a 10-wicket haul for the Lancastrian.

But 29-year-old Nottinghamshire paceman Broad, a veteran of 82 Tests, is an experienced campaigner in his own right.

“In Jimmy’s absence it’s going to be up to all the other bowlers to step up,” Broad told the Mail on Sunday.

“I’ve probably not got as many wickets as I’d have liked during this series (12 in three matches at 27.41 apiece) but I feel as if I’ve bowled the best I’ve bowled for a long time.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen but hopefully I’ll take on that extra responsibility to ensure we’re not crying out for Jimmy over the next couple of days,” he added.

Broad heads into the Trent Bridge clash, which starts on Thursday, just one wicket away from becoming only the fifth England bowler to take 300 Test wickets after Anderson, Ian Botham, Bob Willis and the late Fred Trueman. — AFP