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George Dobell in Dubai
January 21, 2012
If the measure of a team is how they cope with adversity, then Jonathan Trott believes England will quickly bounce back from their first Test defeat against Pakistan.
England haven't lost two Tests in a row since July 2008, when South Africa were their conquerors and, on the last four occasions that England have lost a Test, they have responded with a win in the next game. Trott believes that England's team spirit and previous experience of responding positively to setbacks bodes well for the second Test beginning in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
"We've had a few losses, but we've been able to bounce back [in] the following game," Trott said. "With this bunch of guys being close knit and having played together a lot, it should just be a matter of time before we get back to winning ways.
"We had a bad game in Perth [in the 2010-11 Ashes] - it was pretty similar to this - and we all know what happened in Melbourne. I don't think it's all doom and gloom.
"It's been good to move on from the last match. The guys have thrown themselves in to the net sessions and it's really important the guys enjoy themselves and remember that playing for England is a great honour.
"Whenever you don't score big runs in the first innings, you put yourself under pressure. We need to rectify that in the next game."
Far from fearing the trial by spin that England anticipate for the rest of this tour, Trott insisted that England were relishing the challenge of proving themselves in Asian conditions.
"When you come out here it's all about spin and variations," Trott said. "And that's a great test of us as individuals and as a team. I think we've the ability to win here - I've no doubt about that - and the next two matches should be very exciting."
Amid the crumbs of comfort from a dismal England batting display, the performances of Matt Prior and Trott stood out. Trott was the only Englishman not to be dismissed by spin and the only one who negotiated Saeed Ajmal's bowling with any confidence. Most of his team-mates struggled, however, and it was noticeable on Saturday that they trained against the Merlyn spin bowling machine and several local net bowlers with actions vaguely reminiscent of Ajmal. Graeme Onions even bowled a bit of spin in the nets.
Trott denied that England were concentrating purely on negating the threat of Ajmal, however, pointing out that Umar Gul proved just as potent in their second innings. "You don't go around preparing for a specific type of bowling or a specific person," Trott said. "You make sure your whole game is in good order. Everyone in the team has their own way of playing and we know that they have been effective over the last couple of years. So it's a question of honing that, rather than getting too caught up in this result. The result is important, of course, but there's another game coming up in the next few days, so it's important to move on."
In characteristic fashion, Trott allowed questions about Ajaml's bowling action to go by outside the off stump without offering a shot.
"He has bowled very well," Trott said. "It wouldn't be beneficial for us to worry about the legitimacy of his bowling action. It would be wrong for the game of cricket for us to start talking about our opposition. We should just worry about ourselves. You can get caught up in things happening off the field, but our job is to perform on it."
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