BELIEVE IN BATTER

McCullum resists changes to top seven with Ashes on line

- BY RORY DOLLARD

BRENDON MCCULLUM is ready to back his batters, even if it puts his own job on the line.

The England head coach goes into a must-win third Test in Adelaide tomorrow night with most people having written off his side in the Ashes after they were comprehensively beaten in Perth and Brisbane.

England know they cannot afford another slip-up but are set to give their error-prone top seven another chance.

Ollie Pope, who averages 18.71 in 14 innings against Australia, looked most vulnerable to a challenge from Jacob Bethell but McCullum spoke strongly in favour of retaining the status quo.

Pope took his place in the catching cordon as England returned to practice for the first time since losing in Brisbane, indicating that he would hold the spot. Asked if there would be changes in the batting group after costly collapses, McCullum said: "I wouldn't have thought so. Knee-jerk reactions and chopping and changing settled batting lineups is not really our way.

"We know we haven't got enough runs so far in this series but for us to go on and win this series, it's not about throwing out what has been successful for us over the last few years. It's about having more conviction.