England bowling coach Jeetan Patel said on Friday that the Ashes being England's primary focus was "everyone else's story".
Jeetan Patel: Ashes being 'the' series is everyone else's story
After the third day of play in the Adelaide Test, Patel spoke to the BBC's Test Match Special: "I think the narrative of [the Ashes] being *the* series is everyone else's story. But we're out here to try and win a series against Australia and take away the Ashes.
"We've got a lot of work [to do] to get there to do that. We had a lot of work to do from the start. It hasn't gone our way so far. We've got a huge mission in the next couple of days, but, I mean, this team has done some amazing things before."
Patel's words came at the end of another chastening day for England on their trip Down Under. After Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer did well to cut the deficit to 85 runs, Travis Head took charge to remain unbeaten on 142 and extend Australia's lead to 356 runs. Wicketkeeper Alex Carey was not out on 52 overnight.
The bowling coach's assertion of the Ashes' primacy coming from the outside though, remains a strange statement. This September, head coach Brendon McCullum referred to the Ashes as "the biggest series of all of our lives", when speaking about Jofra Archer.
"He’s a proper cricketer," McCullum said, "hence why we’ve taken our time with him to make sure that we give him every chance to be in the biggest series of all of our lives."
It is the latest in a line of media statements on this tour that have been met with bemusement. Earlier, batting coach Marcus Trescothick said England had not had any discussions regarding the dangers of driving on the up in Australia, while McCullum, after England's defeat in the second Test at the Gabba, said that he felt they had "overprepared", despite turning down the chance to play a pink-ball warmup match in Canberra.
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