MELBOURNE: Under-fire head coach Chris Silverwood has defended his team selection despite England suffering heavy defeats in the first two Tests of the Ashes, insisting he is still the “right man for the job”.
England slumped to a nine-wicket defeat in Brisbane before losing by 275 runs at Adelaide, leading to sharp criticism of the team selections.
The visitors had opted to leave out the experienced pace duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad on a green pitch in Brisbane while including spinner Jack Leach.
The left-arm spinner returned with poor figures of 1 for 102 in 13 overs and was dropped from the second Test with England depending on Root, Dawid Malan and Ollie Robinson for spin at Adelaide Oval.
Silverwood, who is also England’s chief selector, said he will not change a thing when asked by the ‘BBC’ if he would pick the same teams.
“To be honest, I would,” he said.
“There is always going to be divided opinion. You pick a team and not everybody’s going to agree with you (but) I was happy with the skillset we had in the pink-ball Test, so I would pick the same team again.”
The third Test begins in Melbourne on Boxing Day and ahead of the departure of the team, Silverwood on Tuesday reiterated his stance.
“We picked the best attack for those conditions and you look at the attack we had out, there’s a lot of experience. I was happy with that attack this game and I was happy with that attack last game as well.”
Under Silverwood, England have lost nine and won only one of the last 11 Tests and many former players, including ex-captain Michael Atherton, believe he should take responsibility for the two Ashes losses.
“Am I the right man to help the players get better? Yes, I believe I am. We have had those honest chats and I believe I have the right coaching staff around me to make that happen as well,” Silverwood said.
“When you take a job like this you accept that (your job is on the line). It is what it is. Do I believe I’m the right man? Yes I do, or I wouldn’t have taken the job in the first place. You’re under pressure constantly, aren’t you? We knew it was going to be difficult when we came out here. Obviously, we wanted to win but that is always going to be difficult. We have to be realistic about what we have, but we have to learn.”
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