Buchanan admits his team is yet to hit form

Leeds: Australia coach John Buchanan slammed England’s fielding as “lumbering” as the war of words ahead of the Ashes intensified.

Buchanan was responding to comments made by England coach Duncan Fletcher that Australia were uncertain about what to do at the end of Saturday’s tri-series final at Lord’s which ended in a tie after the hosts scrambled two off the last ball.

Fletcher also noted how Australia’s top order had struggled against pace duo Stephen Harmison and Andrew Flintoff. But Buchanan countered by saying England’s top three ? left-handed openers Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss and skipper Michael Vaughan ? had been found wanting by Aussie new-ball duo Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.

“We certainly do see areas to exploit, that is one thing we have come away from that series with,” Buchanan said at Headingley where the teams meet for the first of three separate one-dayers on Thursday.

“There are a lot of areas we believe we can exploit,” he said after the four Anglo-Australian one-dayers so far this season had yielded a win apiece, a washed out no-result and last weekend’s tie.

However, Buchanan stressed there was only so much the backroom staff could do to help their sides. Buchanan singled out Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and Vikram Solanki ? all of whom could fail to make the first Test ? as England’s only three decent fielders, saying “other than that, they are quite lumbering in the field.”

But he did admit that Australia had still to hit top form.

“The strength of our team has been we generally make consistently better decisions than the other teams. At the moment that’s probably not where we would like it.

“But if we can get it there we can ask some serious questions of the English one-day outfit and I’m hopeful we’ll see that in the next three games. The signs are good for the Test series coming up.”