Archer and Wood offer hope amid batting woe

A calamitous lack of runs led to an ODI series whitewash in New Zealand, but pace attack show signs of encouragement

- Simon Burnton Wellington

And so to Australia. Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and other members of England's Ashes squad arrived in Perth yesterday, some flying from the white-ball tour of New Zealand and others from England with the Lions.

The full group will not assemble for another week, with the players and coaches involved in the 3-0 one-day shellacking by the Black Caps now scattering for some much-needed decompression.

There will be a lot of English accents on Kiwi golf courses over the next few days.

One can only hope they strike that kind of white ball a little more cleanly than the ones with which New Zealand's bowlers have been torturing them of late. Take away Harry Brook's magnificent 135 in the first one-day international, and in their other 14 innings the five batters now turning their attention to the Ashes scored 129 runs at an average of 9.21, the start of every innings a cavalcade of misery.