McCullum keeps faith in batting lineup with jobs on line

The seriesis on the line and, inalllike-lihood, jobs with it.

- Ali Martin

But for Brendon McCullum, the latter is irrelevant.The England head coach hasinstead backed an unchanged top seven to deliver a fightback in the third Ashes Test and flip a narrative that hasalready led to talk ofa whitewash bubbling up.

At 2-0 down with three to play, all wiggle room has disappeared for England. But talk of Ollie Pope being dropped, or even Ben Stokes moving toNo3, was shot down by McCullum as his players resumed training in Adelaide yesterday. No going back now was the message.

“{wouldn’t have thought so,” said McCullum when asked whether a batting lineup averaging 22 to Australia’s 37 needed freshening up when the third Test gets under way at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday.

“These conditions should suit the style of batters that we've got as well. We know we haven’t got enoughruns so far in this series. We’ve been in positions where we could have and made some mistakes.

“But it’s not about throwing out what has been successful for us over the last few years. It’s about having more conviction. Kneejerk reactions or chopping and changing settled batting lineups isnot really our way.”