Strong words in England camp after defeat – Farbrace

DUBAI (Reuters) – Assistant coach Paul Farbrace said there were strong words in England’s dressing room after they slid to a six-wicket defeat in the opening one-dayer against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

England batted first in Wednesday’s match and never fully recovered after slumping to 14 for three, an all-out total of 216 being easily reached by Pakistan.

“There were strong but honest words spoken afterwards,” Farbrace told reporters on Thursday, the eve of the second game at the same venue.

“It’s up to the guys here to show they have the ability and that they’ve also got the nous, the intelligence, to learn quickly and deserve to stay in the side when we get closer to the Champions Trophy in 2017 and the World Cup in 2019.”

There have been suggestions in the media that Eoin Morgan’s England team did not get enough preparation for the four-match series, having warmed up with a solitary game against Hong Kong.

“We’re not making excuses about schedules, it’s down to the fact we did not play well enough,” said Farbrace.

“It was the same before the test series,” he added of a contest that England lost 2-0.

“Everyone said two two-day games wasn’t enough but we proved during that (drawn) first test we were ready to play.

“We didn’t take opportunities in that match, we had opportunities to win the first one-day game and we didn’t take them,” added Farbrace.

The last two games in the one-day series take place in Sharjah on Nov. 17 and Dubai on Nov. 20.

(Writing by Tony Jimenez; editing by Pritha Sarkar)