Andrew Strauss warns his side against complacency
The England captain Andrew Strauss has warned his men against complacency and has urged his side not to take http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 strike bowler Mitchell Johnson’s ouster from the Adelaide Test lightly. He has also asked the side to keep its feet firmly
on the ground and build on the remarkable second innings performance at Gabba Test.
Just one wicket-less Test cost Johnson, the 2009 Test Player of the Year, his place in the Adelaide Test which starts on Friday. The skipper Ricky Ponting said that the abject performance and out of rhythm during Brisbane opener that led
to his axing from a Test squad for the first time since he debuted in November 2007.
The tourists kept an upper hand during the last two days of the drawn Ashes opener played at the Gabba ground with an astounding batting performance with all the three batsmen - Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott scoring centuries
to amass 571 runs in their second innings.
"A big theme of our preparations has been making sure we keep our feet on the ground and realise it's nil all in the series," said the visiting captain while talking to a news conference on the eve of Adelaide Test. "We haven't achieved
anything yet. If we do want to achieve something, we have to steel ourselves for another five tough days of cricket" the 33-year old added further.
Prior to the first Ashes Test, the Aussies were busy in discussing their spin attack and finally played uncapped Xavier Doherty at the cost of experienced Nathan Hauritz. And the days before the second Test were spent discussing the pace
attack. And finally Australia's leading active wicket-taker of recent times, Mitchell Johnson – who has claimed 166 Test wickets from 39 matches – was dropped out while Ryan Harris and Ben Hilfenhaus are still in a race for a place in the Adelaide Test squad.
Doug Bollinger is expected to replace Johnson.
And Strauss feels this instability in the opposition camp would help them a lot and his side would try to grab the best out of this chaos. However, he did opine that they are not going to take the replacements easy and would come up with
a strategy to counteract them.
"But I think we've got to be slightly wary of the guys that they've got in their squad. They're good performers and they've had a lot of success in Test cricket. So it's not like they're dragging in someone from obscurity, so we've got to
be able to contend with them."
England has not yet announced its squad for the second Test and are expected to name it on the morning of match.
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