Flower confident of England recovery but won't hesitate to drop under-performers

Herald Globe (ANI) Wednesday 8th February, 2012

England team director Andy Flower has expressed his confidence in England's batsmen to recover from the muddle of their first Test clean-sweep but has told them that he will not be afraid to drop players if they continue to under-perform.

He said even young players have a chance of making it to the England squad, which will go to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series next month, if they perform well in the four-match one-day series against Pakistan that begins on Monday.

"To the England supporter who wants changes I say that I can understand why they think that way,' said Flower as the dust settled on one of England's worst defeats for years," the Daily Mail quoted Flower, as saying.

"But they've got to realize that these players have built up a lot of credit over the last few years. They have won a lot of cricket matches and Andrew Strauss, for instance, is the player who has won most matches with England," he added.

He said one series was not good enough for everyone to start doubting over the current crop of English players.

"One series is not enough to eliminate all the credits that have built up and I say don't condemn this side for losing so badly to Pakistan. These guys are not robots, they are human beings," he added.

Flower said the England team would constantly look for new and fresh faces for the team and if any new exiting prospect performs well, then he will definitely get a chance in the Test squad.

"But in saying that this is not a closed shop and if changes are required and are deemed necessary then it's part of my job to have the courage to make them."

"Most definitely we will be looking at players in the one-day series. We've got to find batsmen who can play spin and those skills are transferable from one-dayers to Tests," he added. (ANI)