Bancroft holds edge in battle for Ashes berths

Justin Langer has said it would be "hard to change a winning team" and endorsed opener Cameron Bancroft for the second Ashes Test at Lord's next week.

Australia opened the Ashes series with a thumping 251-run win at Edgbaston but the depth of talent in the visitors' 17-man squad means there’s pressure on the incumbents to hold their spots in the side.

Bancroft, playing his first Test since the ball tampering incident in Cape Town, returned scores of eight and seven at Edgbaston having entered the series hitting a second-innings 93 in the all-Australian intra-squad match.

In Australia's tour match against Worcester this week Bancroft spent 90 minutes in the middle in the first innings, facing 78 balls before being spectacularly bowled for 33. He then made seven from 40 balls in the second innings.

Image Id: 46070E2ED87F42988E4D62EF33DF2322 Image Caption: Bancroft's exit saw stumps cartwheeling // Getty

Fellow opener David Warner was rested from the tour match having returned scores of two and 8 and falling victim to Stuart Broad on both occasions at Edgbaston, his worst ever output in an Ashes Test.

Australia coach Langer, who took time off this week and was not in Worcester for the tour match having first arrived in the UK in May, endorsed the incumbent pair and said he had full confidence they will come good at Lord's.

"They'll be right. As a coach, I was an opener too and I've spent a lot of time with those guys," Langer said earlier this week on Macquarie Radio.

"I've got great confidence in both of them. We've got some really good batters on the bench as well but I've got great confidence in both of them.

"It was a tough wicket first up in the first innings (at Edgbaston), they missed out in the second dig but really good players, they tend to bounce back.

"We'll keep encouraging them and I'm confident they'll come good for the second Test and beyond."

In Warner’s absence, reserve opener Marcus Harris scored 14 and then an unbeaten 62 in a fluent innings against an inexperienced bowling attack from a Worcester side that sits second-bottom in the County Championship's second division.

Harris opened the batting during the absence of Warner and Bancroft over the past 12 months and averages 32.7 at Test level from six matches and was the leading run-scorer in last summer's Sheffield Shield competition, including hitting a ton in the final.

Even more competitive is the jockeying for positions in Australia's three-man pace attack given players the calibre of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – with a combined 375 Test wickets between them – were left running drinks in the opening Test.

Pat Cummins – the world's No.1 ranked Test bowler and Australian talisman – is a lock to play at Lord's, while James Pattinson and Peter Siddle performed admirably at Edgbaston.

Pattinson, in his first Test since early 2016, took 2-82 in 27 first-innings overs and was required to bowl just eight overs in England's second innings. He was rested from this week's three-day match to give him extra time to recover and be fresh for Wednesday's second Test.

Siddle bowled without luck but earned effusive praise from the coach, who labelled his bowling "brilliant" and "the style of cricket we think we need to beat England" in the wake of the Edgbaston victory.

Hazlewood put down his marker for Lord's with 3-34 from 15 overs against Worcester and while Starc's aggressive approach saw him concede more boundaries in recording 2-56 from 15.5 overs, he could factor in the thinking with conditions again to dictate the Australian strategy.

"When we get to Lord's we'll have a look at ground and wicket and see how it all stacks up," Langer added.

"It's hard to change a winning team but you never know.

"Imagine having Josh Hazlewood and Mitch Starc on the bench. That tells you something about the depth of the team.

"One of the really important parts of us moving forward as a cricket team was creating that depth and that competition and we've certainly got that at the moment.

In a separate radio interview with 6PR, Langer said Pattinson's first-innings workload from Edgbaston would be part of the selectors' considerations.

"We'll weigh up a lot of things," Langer said. "Pattinson is just coming back into Test cricket.

"The energy he brings, like Siddle, is brilliant for the group. He bowled quite a few overs, certainly in the first innings, so we'll keep an eye on that, again knowing we've got a five-Test series and we've got Hazlewood, Starc and Michael Neser in the bowling group sitting on the bench.

"We'll be really clinical and manage the squad really well so we can win this series."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

England squad: Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (vc), Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.

First Test: Australia beat England by 251 runs at Edgbaston

Tour match: Australians v Worcestershire, August 7-9

Second Test: August 14-18,Lord's

Third Test: August 22-26, Headingley

Tour match: Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: September 4-8, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: September 12-16, The Oval