England head coach Chris Silverwood was annoyed and wanted a change after losing the second Ashes Test, said pacer Mark Wood.
Wood added that the players met for an in-depth chat on how things can get better for them.
After losing the first Test in Brisbane by nine wickets, England suffered a crushing 275-run defeat in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval. With the third Test starting on Boxing Day (December 26) at Melbourne, England are in desperate need of a win to prevent conceding an unassailable lead to Australia in the five-match series.
“We obviously review the game, chat about what we did well, what we didn’t do well, but this time it was sterner from Chris Silverwood. To hear (Silverwood) speak like that – not because he’s under pressure or anything – but to hear him speak like that rather than just being his usual coaching self, he was actually annoyed and wanted a change. Hopefully it comes at the right time for us to catch a spark,” Wood was quoted as saying by BBC.
Wood further revealed the details of a very honest chat between the players following the defeat in the second Test. “Stokesy (Ben Stokes) and Joe Root spoke to the group about basically a bit of a kick up the bum saying ‘this isn’t good enough’. We’ve talked in depth about how things can get better. Not just words or cliched words, we actually set out what we’re going to do in Melbourne practice-wise, what we’re going to do differently.”
Wood believes that England have to keep their mindset positive in orchestrating a turnaround. “We’ve got to believe we can turn this round. We haven’t shown our best stuff yet. We know that Australia have played really well. If we can match them then we believe we can win Test matches here. ”
The 31-year-old signed off by pointing out the areas where England can improve. “We’ve just got to up our game in all three areas. At the minute, Australia have scored 400 twice, we’ve had batting collapses and we’ve dropped catches. We’ve got facets of the game that need major work.”
“We’ve now got a couple of days to stop thinking about cricket, get away in Melbourne and enjoy the lead-up to Christmas.”
