Atherton urges England to adopt positive approach

Stand-in captain must restore home side's fighting spirit in today's second Test if they are to upset Australia's formidable record at Lord's

If there is a big picture, such as Australia's intimidating record at Lord's, England must ignore it and concentrate on the fine detail. Great sides in great form can be toppled, but it has to be done in increments. Michael Atherton's job as caretaker captain for the second Test, which begins today, is to ensure England's batsman and bowlers regard every ball with the same care and attention, though not respect, as they might a Fabergé egg.

As a batsman, Atherton's own game is built upon similar foundations so he will be preaching the gospel of the convert. Fortunately his stock as a batsman rose when he was captain, something he can take succour from in his largely one-sided duels with Glenn McGrath, who has now dismissed him more often (14 times) than any other batsman.

England's stand-in captain also knows, despite their spats over the years, that he has the respect of his opposite number, Steve Waugh, so will not be tempted to outstrip him on the machismo front, as Nasser Hussain tried to do in the first Test. The last time he toured, Waugh likened Atherton to a cockroach, a compliment in that the Aussie variety are tough and keep scuttling back despite efforts to exterminate them.

This time, the Australian captain, never short of tossing a psychological barb into the pot, was waxing lyrical again, after expressing surprise that some players – most notably Alec Stewart – had made themselves unavailable for the captaincy after Hussain was sidelined by a broken finger.

"I can't comprehend any guy who doesn't want to captain his country," Waugh said at Lord's yesterday. "It may be down to a different mindset, but no one in the Australian side would say they didn't want to captain their country." As Pom-baiting goes it was fairly tame stuff, especially when Waugh's suggestion the previous day was that England had probably pulled their captain out of a hat. Of course, Waugh speaks from a position of dominance and no one who recalls the dark days of the Eighties, when Australia habitually lost, can remember players queuing for the captaincy.

Atherton's response to the verbal sciamachy was typically guarded, as if getting drawn into conflict so soon would be a waste of time and energy. After revealing that he required no persuasion to take up the captaincy again, when asked, he defended Stewart's decision, saying that the player had a lot on his plate with batting and keeping wicket.

"I didn't anticipate the captaincy, but I decided if it was offered to me that it would be the right thing to do given the circumstances," Atherton said yesterday. "I'm looking forward to the game. A Lord's Test against Australia is a fantastic occasion and I hope we can do it justice." The sense of occasion is obviously shared by the public and the MCC reckons that with almost 400,000 ticket applications, the first four days (which are a sell-out anyway) could have been sold three times over.

While the public confidence is heartening, the weight of history is against an England victory. Australia have lost just once here in 106 years, in 1934. On that occasion Hedley Verity, a left-arm spinner, took 15 for 104 in England's victory, the second greatest bowling feat by an England bowler in Ashes history.

Spin has not played much of a role at Lord's recently and in the last three matches at HQ, 97 of the 98 wickets to fall have gone to pace. On that basis, Dominic Cork will almost certainly replace Ashley Giles, while Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash come in for Hussain and Usman Afzaal.

Cork's form with the ball has been on the slide, having lost both pace and swing since his injury in Pakistan. Lord's though, as it has done with England in their last three Tests here, has tended to bring the best, as well the beast, out in him.

Last year, it was Cork, with 7 for 52 in the match, and a feisty unbeaten 33, who saw England home against West Indies with just two wickets to spare. As a performance it was not so much match-winning as era-forming, with England subsequently moving forward with greater confidence and consistency, attributes Atherton has called for over the coming days.

"We're not in awe of Australia but we respect their recent record and the way they are playing the game," Atherton said. "But our team is pretty much the same as the one that has shown a lot of character and spirit when coming from behind during the last 18 months. It is now time to show those qualities again."

England let themselves down at Edgbaston on three fronts. Darren Gough and Andy Caddick bowled poorly with the new ball; they missed eight chances, and the middle-order was twice blown away without a peep. Against a side like Australia, Test matches are rarely won when even one of the above goes wrong, never when all three do.

If he can, Atherton might like to win the toss, something England have achieved just once in their last 13 Ashes Tests. Held later in the summer than normal, the pitch at Lord's, dry with an even covering of grass, looks full of runs. However, the forecast is not good and cloud cover nearly always makes the ball move about, so weighing up what to do may be tricky if the sun is not out.

For their part Australia, unchanged from Edgbaston, will be trying for a repeat of the first Test without the dropped catches and the sloppy bowling of the first innings. Waugh believes that both McGrath, who took 8 for 38 here last time, and Brett Lee were below their best in Birmingham, a chilling prospect for those facing the backlash.

Error in cricket is mainly down to losses of concentration, something England mainly avoided during the winter. At Edgbaston, their gung-ho attitude caused them to lose their bearings and their focus.

Over the next few days, they must find both. Like the great West Indies sides of the 1980s, this Australia side are playing cricket of another dimension, with fast scoring batsmen and, Shane Warne apart, quick, accurate bowlers.

As a particularly strong mix, it is not an easy one to combat. Yet opportunities will present themselves if England can create pressure, maintain it, then take the chances that result. It is just a matter of resisting the shortcuts and doing it ball by ball.

ENGLAND (from): M A Atherton (Lancashire, capt), M E Trescothick (Somerset), M A Butcher (Surrey), G P Thorpe (Surrey), A J Stewart (Surrey, wkt), I J Ward (Surrey), M R Ramprakash (Surrey), C White (Yorkshire), D G Cork (Derbyshire), D Gough (Yorkshire), A R Caddick (Somerset), A F Giles (Warwickshire), C E W Silverwood (Yorkshire).

AUSTRALIA: S R Waugh (capt), M J Slater, M L Hayden, R T Ponting, M E Waugh, D R Martyn, A C Gilchrist (wkt), S K Warne, B Lee, J N Gillespie, G D McGrath.

Umpires: S A Bucknor (WI) and J Holder.