How hungry are the tourists? Question gives Andy Flower food for thought

IT'S tough to know if your players have lost their desire.

GOOD enough or hungry enough? Is it a matter of skill or desire? How does a coach know? One is easily identifiable: dropped catches, poor shot selection and bad bowling are obvious to all. Drive and determination less so.

It is the question being asked of England right now. Is this team, the bulk of whom have experienced some of the finest moments that the sport can offer, simply playing badly? Or are they nearing the end of the road? Have the senior players who form the spine of the team lost the drive and that indefinable edge that is essential for succeeding at the highest level?

For Andy Flower, asked to explain two of the most humbling defeats of his tenure, the answer is straightforward: it is simply a matter of skill. "We haven't been skilful enough with the bat," he said on the day his team flew to Perth. "We've succumbed to normal tactics and some aggressive fast bowling. The dropped chances or missed chances in the first innings at Adelaide have put us in this position. It's not from a lack of hunger or desperation to win."

In one sense, the analysis brooks no argument. In Australia's first innings at Adelaide, Brad Haddin was dropped on five, Michael Clarke on 18 and George Bailey on 10, chances that, if taken, would have resulted in Australia's score looking far less imposing. Shot selection, too, is partly a matter of skill. Making decisions under pressure is what separates international batsmen from the rest and England's batsmen have made some very poor decisions during the first two Tests.

Underpinning these skills are those less quantifiable areas of desire and determination. The extra sessions of fielding practice that once were enjoyable and now seem like a chore. And when that fizzing bouncer whistles past your nose, the hook shot that costs you the very next ball can be a poor decision but it can also be an easy way out of the line of fire. It is not obvious; players are adept at fooling themselves as well as coaches.

For a coach, identifying deficiencies in skill is preferable to admitting to an absence of more fundamental qualities. After all, in the middle of a tour, you can do something about the former, not much about the latter. Hard work and practice, the default mantras of the modern game, are likely to be a productive response.

Only wholesale change can help if a team has reached the end of the road.

Flower is not yet prepared to consider such a possibility, saying: "One of the tendencies when you lose or when you observe two teams operating and one dominates the other, is that the first place people go to as a reason is: 'Oh, that side's really hungry to win and this side's not, this side's not trying hard.' That's the easy answer and it's the easy answer for coaches to point fingers at players and say you need to try harder.

"This team can come back. I believe that because this side has played excellent cricket in the recent past and they have a history of winning and they have a history of performing under pressure and Perth is going to be that type of situation. So yes, I am confident.

"These guys are very fine players and I'm very proud of the way they've performed over the years, and they can be very proud of themselves. However, that means very little in the context of a series that we're in the middle of and in the context of the challenge that is staring us in the face. But they can use some of that experience of being in tough situations before, as can the coaches, and we need to regroup very quickly."

A big factor in that regrouping will be assessing the conditions and acting accordingly and Flower was confident enough, even before arriving in Perth, to indicate that would include some changes to the team. "We thought this wicket would turn and we thought our best chance of taking wickets would be to include a second spinner," he said.

"It spun on the first day and unfortunately we weren't good enough to take the opportunities that were given to us.

"It will be very different for Perth ... so there will be changes."

Given Flower's subsequent revealing comments about Steven Finn, he looks to be well down the pecking order, behind Chris Tremlett, Boyd Rankin and Tim Bresnan, in the race to replace Monty Panesar.

"I don't think he'd mind me saying that Finn is working through a few aspects of his bowling," Flower said.

"I wouldn't say he is at his best at the moment, but I think he's actually just starting to turn things around. It is good to have Bresnan back as an option and obviously we have got Tremlett and Rankin as well and their height and bounce could be assets that we could use in Perth."

A change to personnel, to the balance of the team, more hard work, better decision-making and a return to world-class skill levels are the ingredients for England to turn this series around. Not straightforward tasks, but at least identifiable. As for the players' determination and hunger, those questions, sad to report, are almost impossible for even such an excellent coach as Flower to determine. Deep down, only the players know the answers.

THE TIMES