England still searching for their ‘A’ game, admits Giles

The batting of Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan should increase England’s confidence as they prepare to meet Australia for the first time in this Ashes summer. Without Kevin Pietersen, and with Morgan struggling to find his timing, England’s batting had looked pedestrian during the defeats by New Zealand at Lord’s and Southampton — as it did for much of their innings at Trent Bridge.

Yet Buttler (above) turned the match with a remarkable cameo of 47 from only 16 balls. Had he managed to hit the final ball of the innings, delivered by Tim Southee, for six, the Somerset player would have recorded the fastest half-century in the history of international 50-over cricket.Sanath Jayasuriya still holds that honour but Australia, as well as the other teams in the Champions Trophy, will have watched his work with interest.

When he found rhythm, Morgan, too, gave a reminder of his talent by scoring 49 from 40 balls. Buttler had found it difficult to make an impression with the bat in his previous eight one-day internationals and Giles believes that innings, which earned him the man-of-the-match award, will take the wicketkeeper’s game to new heights.

“Jos can play like that over a longer period, not just for the final few overs of an innings,” Giles insisted. “It doesn’t mean he’s going to do it all the time but in Twenty20 cricket, once he got over the hurdle of playing a big innings, he looked a different player. I’m hoping that will happen again. I believe that playing an extra batsman, Ravi Bopara, might have given Jos more confidence, as it took a little bit of pressure off him.

“When he walked out to bat, [captain] Alastair Cook and I were hoping that he’d managed to score something like 30 from 10 balls. He ended up doing much better.”

Giles and England’s medical team were due to assess the fitness of Broad and Finn today after both returned to action following respective knee and shin problems.

Although the bowlers were a little expensive yesterday, they shared four wickets and made the England attack appear more potent.

Finn needed ice treatment after the final practice session at Trent Bridge and he will be managed carefully through the summer.