Joe Root forced to defend England's coaches after criticism from James Anderson

Ahead of the third Ashes Test, Joe Root has been forced to defend the England coaching staff against criticism from James Anderson. In a newspaper column on Tuesday, Anderson expressed his frustration that England’s coaches did not offer more input during Australia’s first innings at Adelaide, when England won the toss and squandered the new ball by bowling too short, allowing Australia to run up a match-winning score of 442-8 declared.

But the England captain described Anderson’s comments as “harsh”, arguing that international bowlers should be able to adapt to conditions and work out a correct length for themselves, out on the field. “We’re the ones responsible for what we are doing out there,” he said. “We have to be smarter, react quicker. I take responsibility for that as well, as captain.”

England spent a good deal of time in advance of the series working on their bowling plans to various Australian batsmen, with Root and part-time bowling consultant Shane Bond devising the bulk of the strategy. But the containing length that England chose to bowl at Brisbane in order to slow the Australian run-rate proved less effective at Adelaide, with a new pink ball that was moving around.

“In the first innings I probably bowled too short,” Anderson wrote for The Telegraph. “They were not going anywhere at two an over, but we were not taking wickets. We should have bowled a touch fuller. It was an oversight from the players on the field but also from the coaches who could have had an input too, which is frustrating.”

In recent years, England’s new-ball pair of Anderson and Stuart Broad leant heavily on bowling coach Ottis Gibson. But Gibson left at the end of the summer to coach South Africa, and what is increasingly clear is that his invaluable ability to provide useful nuggets of advice before and during matches is yet to be satisfactorily replaced. Bond left the tour after Adelaide, leaving bowling coach duties in the hands of Paul Collingwood.

But Root called on his fast bowlers to take greater responsibility. “We got it wrong on the field,” he said. “It’s easy to look back and say try to bowl that little bit fuller’. We all knew that was the case, and it’s slightly harsh to put the blame onto the coaches. You’ve got to pick up on these things quite quickly, and as a group we’ve got to adapt.”

It was hardly the line of questioning Root would have wanted to face ahead of the crucial Perth Test, where England must avoid defeat to prevent Australia from taking an unassailable 3-0 lead and reclaiming the urn. “We know what’s at stake,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to create history. It’s a chance to flip the dynamic of this series on its head.”

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England named an unchanged side ahead of the match, with just one tweak to the batting order. Jonny Bairstow, demoted to No7 ahead of the series, will move back up to No6, swapping places with Moeen Ali. The change is a response to Nathan Lyon’s stranglehold on England’s left-handers, but has probably come at least two Tests too late, with the Waca surface at Perth not expected to take spin and Lyon - who averages 50 here - preparing for a more peripheral role.

Australia, meanwhile, were expected to bring in all-rounder Mitchell Marsh on his home ground, slotting in at No6 behind his brother Shaun. Marsh’s tidy seam bowling will ease the load on Australia’s pacemen, and is a tacit admission that the wicket will be good for batting. He replaces the luckless Peter Handscomb, whose idiosyncratic technique has been exposed by England over the first two Test matches.

Nevertheless, Australia are in bullish mood, confident that they have sown enough seeds of panic in this England side to turn the series decisively in their favour. Captain Steve Smith wasted no time in reminding England about their precarious position, claiming that there was “no reason why” Australia could not convert their lead into a 5-0 whitewash.

“We’ll have to play some good cricket,” he said. “No doubt, England will come back hard. But if we can win, it would take the wind out of their sails a little bit, knowing the series is dead and buried. They are only a couple of bad sessions away from the series going away from them. It would be nice to get those couple of sessions out of the way in the first few days here."