Follow UsIt was five days of pure bliss watching Australia and England battle it out in Birmingham, with Australia securing a thrilling two-wicket win, which Pat Cummins later described as the No.1 Test win of his captaincy career. However, in both innings, Australia's two premier batters, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, didn't make enough of a contribution, adding a combined total of 35 runs.
"It's very rare that Marn and Smudge miss out in the same Test match," acknowledged head coach Andrew McDonald. "It's an appetising thought.
"They will be no doubt a craving for more net sessions from Marn and Smudge. They're disappointed they missed out in this game, but I think any time the Australian cricket team can win without those two performing at high level is always a positive. We've got some areas we can improve, there's some growth within the team and there's two obvious ones.
"We've got some areas we can improve, there's some growth within the team, and there are two obvious ones."
In his last Test tour of England, in 2019, Steve Smith dominated in an uncanny style, accumulating a total of 774 runs. It was also the series that saw Marnus Labuschagne transform into the player he is today, leading to numerous success stories thereafter. Hence, the failure may have come up as a daunting one for Australia to acknowledge, despite their win, but the fact that the duo possess the abilty to come back from setbacks and find a way through make McDonald believe.
"I think there's always a curiosity to get better, so we're not going to stall that in any way," said McDonald. "They'll come up with different plans, different movements. They've seen what England is going to do and how they're going to attack them, and they're probably two of the greatest problem-solvers we've had over a period of time, so you would expect them to go back to the drawing board."
"Michael Di Venuto, our batting coach, will be part of that process. They'll come out pretty clear on what they need to do in the next innings. But there's no issue there," added the head coach.