Hussain happy to defend his attack

David Lloyd13 April 2012

Nasser Hussain has had his mini-rant. Now he plans to put a reassuring arm around his England team before confidently sending them back into action against Sri Lanka tomorrow.

The captain left no one, either inside or outside the home dressing room, in any doubt about his views following the summer's First npower Test at Lord's.

England bowled and then batted poorly for three days and Hussain's annoyance was only partially offset by the fact they then fought their way out of trouble to earn a draw.

But, apart from recruiting new fast bowler Simon Jones, who is unlikely to make his debut just yet, England have assembled the same squad for Edgbaston with the full blessing of their skipper.

"No one plays well all the time," said Hussain. "We didn't play well for three days at Lord's but it's not the end of the world.

"Because of one flat surface everybody says we've got a onepaced attack that won't dismiss this Sri Lanka batting line-up.

"I gave them a bit of stick at Lord's because they didn't perform on a very flat pitch.

"But, by the same token, I'll back them that when the ball does move sideways we can bowl out Sri Lanka."

Hussain insists that Jones has a chance of making tomorrow's final XI but the pitch will need to be quicker than generally expected for the Glamorgan youngster's extra pace to come into the equation.

A much more likely change is Alex Tudor for Dominic Cork and, possibly, spinner Ashley Giles for sixth specialist batsman John Crawley.

"We love playing at Edgbaston because there is always a great atmosphere," said Hussain.

"But it's a very difficult pitch to read and has produced every possible scenario over recent years."

Sri Lanka may be able to recall not only their fastest bowler (Dilhara Fernando) but also their ace spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan. If Fernando can prove his full recovery from a back problem then Sri Lanka will have no difficulty in leaving out Ruchira Perera, who has started work on modifying an action now officially regarded as "suspicious".

But the real interest in Birmingham surrounds Murali, whose damaged left shoulder is growing stronger by the day.

England's top order did well to minimise his threat in Sri Lanka 15 months ago.

They may have to work even harder to keep him at bay this summer, though, following suggestions that he has perfected a new "mystery" ball that hurries on to batsmen in the manner of Shane Warne's 'flipper'.

The squads

England (from): M Trescothick, M Vaughan, M Butcher, N Hussain (capt), G Thorpe, J Crawley, A Stewart (wkt), A Flintoff, D Cork, A Tudor, A Giles, A Caddick, M Hoggard, S Jones.

Sri Lanka (from): M Atapattu, S Jayasuriya (capt), K Sangakkara (wkt), M Jayawardene, A de Silva, R Arnold, H Tillekeratne, T Samaraweera, C Vaas, N Zoysa, M Muralitharan, C Buddika, R Perera, D Fernando.

Umpires: S Venkat (Ind), D Harper (Aus).
TV replays: P Willey.
Referee: G Viswanath.
First Test (Lord's) - Drawn.
Third Test (Old Trafford) - 13-17 June.

Butcher joins 'chucker' row

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