Chris Silverwood: I believe I am the right man for the job

GEORGE DOBELL IN MELBOURNE: While Silverwood accepts some aspects of England's performances have been "unacceptable", he believes the team will benefit from a "healthy" debrief after the second Test in which home truths were discussed

Chris Silverwood has insisted he is the man to lead a resurgence in England's Test fortunes despite a desperately disappointing start to their Ashes campaign.

Silverwood, the England head coach, admits his position will be under scrutiny if England lose the series but believes the current coaching team are the right people to oversee an improvement.

England lost the first Test, in Brisbane, by nine wickets and the second, in Adelaide, by 275 runs to go 2-0 down in the series. They need to win all three of the remaining Tests if they are to regain the Ashes.

But perhaps more worrying than the results have been the error-strewn performances. England have dropped catches, cost themselves wickets by over-stepping, failed to reach 300 in an innings in the series and only bowled out Australia once in four attempts.

^{Chris Silverwood's tenure as England head coach is coming under increasing scrutiny (Stu Forster/Getty Images)}

While Silverwood accepts some aspects of England's performances have been "unacceptable", he believes the team will benefit from a "healthy" debrief in the dressing room after the game in which home truths were discussed.

"Wickets off no-balls are unacceptable," Silverwood said. "I brought it up [in the dressing room] last night. This cannot happen. It is a basic error. The lads accepted that. We have to be better.

"We have had batting collapses. We have spoken about the two in these games. We have had collapses before. We can't afford to do that.

"We have to learn from it and get better. We have to make sure we stop that by putting runs on the board in the first innings. If we want to win this Test series and compete in this Test series we have to be better.

"Could we have pitched it up further [when England bowled]? Potentially, yes.

"When you take a job like this, you accept that your job is on the line. You are under pressure constantly. But I do believe I'm the right man for the job"

Chris Silverwood

"We have to be better. It is as simple as that. It is not just batting and bowling. Look at how many chances we have given up in the field: dropped catches, missed run outs and everything else. We have to be better.

"We had a really good talk in the dressing room which was needed. There were a few things thrown out there. There were some honest chats which was great.

"Joe was just truthful [when he spoke to the media after the game]. What you saw was what we got in the dressing room afterwards. It was good and it was healthy.

"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 insists he is the right man for the job (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

"When you take a job like this, you accept that your job is on the line. You are under pressure constantly. But I do believe I'm the right man for the job."

Silverwood also urged his team to learn from Australia. But there was, perhaps, just a note of resignation in his words as he called for a "realistic" expectation of what his team could achieve on this trip.

"Australia have showed us how to play in their conditions," Silverwood said. "Australia given us a game plan and a template. The way they left the ball was superb. We have to learn from it. We have to learn quickly, adapt and take those lessons into the next game."

"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.

"We come here and want to learn from them, see what they do and adapt to the conditions. We adapt to what is going on and that is what you have to do. That is what we are looking at doing and that is what we have to do.

England travelled to Melbourne on Tuesday and will have a day off on Wednesday. Thursday will see an optional training session, before full training sessions on Friday and Saturday. The Boxing Day Test starts on Sunday.

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