England Men's Cricket Team

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England batter Jordan Cox has signed as a replacement player for the injured Saqib Mahmood at Pretoria Capitals in the SA20.

Capitals announced that Mahmood has been ruled out of the tournament, but did not specify what injury the 28-year-old had.

Cox, 25, will join up with Pretoria after representing Dubai Capitals in the International League T20, which runs until 4 January.

The right-hander has played six T20s for England, scoring 88 runs in four innings. His previous experience in the SA20 was with Sunrisers Eastern Cape, but he struggled and only scored 44 runs in seven innings.

The fourth edition of the SA20 runs from 26 December to 25 January.

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Former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie says he would be more worried about the "robustness" of England's pace attack than their batting frailties.

England's all-pace attack of Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Mark Wood and all-rounder Ben Stokes were lauded after the first innings in Perth, with former captain Michael Vaughan saying they were "as good as he's seen".

However, they struggled in the face of an onslaught from Travis Head in the second innings and paces were down, with Archer's average speed dropping from 90.3mph to 87.6mph.

Head went on to hit a swashbuckling century and set up an eight-wicket win for Australia.

"England should take a lot of heart from their first innings bowling and we saw glimpses with the bat from Harry Brook and Jamie Smith of batting nice and positively and scoring a few runs," Gillespie said on BBC World Service's Stumped podcast.

"Everyone talks about England's batting and it being aggressive - that will be hit and miss, it is inconsistent. When it is good, it is really good, when it is bad, it's really bad.

"I would be more concerned about the robustness of the bowling attack - it was chalk and cheese from day one to day two and in particular Jofra Archer and Mark Wood.

"I know they had different bowling plans but it was interesting to see the pace was well down from the previous day and they hadn't bowled a lot of overs.

"That would be my concern. Do they have enough work in the bank to be fit and strong enough to bowl consistently high pace across the course of a whole match and then back it up in the subsequent matches? That is the big question mark for me."

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Australia batter Travis Head has said England are "going to live by the sword or die by the sword" having decided not to send senior players to play a two-day pink ball match in Canberra.

The match against the Prime Minister's XI begins on Saturday, and none of the players who featured in the first Test are heading to the Australian capital.

The day-night match will largely be contested by England Lions squad, although Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts, who didn't play in Perth, have joined up with the group.

The decision by England management has drawn criticism from the English media, with BBC chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew saying England will be "held to account" if they preparation for the second Test backfires.

"You can either change the script and say, 'we're going to train', or you can double down and go, 'we've had this planned out, we know exactly how we want to go for five Tests'," Head said.

"You've got to respect the fact they've been a good team, and I reckon they've got their plans and they're doubling down.

"Credit to them, they're going to live by the sword or die by the sword, and we'll see where we're at in Brisbane."

Travis Head says he was wary of inciting England's pace bowlers during his swashbuckling century that won Australia the first Test in Perth.

Head, who was promoted to open, blazed 123 off 83 balls to set up an eight-wicket win.

He reached his century in 69 balls - the second-fastest behind Adam Gilchrist's 57 balls in an Ashes Test - and hit 16 fours and four sixes in his innings.

"I'm very realistic that they had two blokes bowling 150 clicks," Head said on Australian radio station Triple M.

"I accidentally hit Jofra (Archer) back over his head for six at one point and calmly walked back and marked centre and was like, 'Oh my god, why did I just do that?'

"Marnus [Labuschagne] came down and was like, 'I know you're trying to act cool, but that's unbelievable'. And he's yelling and screaming, and he's hoo-hah-ing.

"And I'm like, 'Mate, get back to the other end, at any moment they can put a hole through me, they bowl 150 clicks'."

Head also revealed he got a text saying well done from Gilchrist, and he replied asking: "How you hell did you do it quicker?".

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England's all-time leading Test wicket-taker Sir James Anderson says he "would not be surprised" if they stuck with the same side for the second Ashes Test.

They opted for a four-man pace attack in the eight-wicket defeat in Perth, with captain Ben Stokes offering a fifth option and Joe Root as a part-time spinner.

The seamers were highly praised after the first innings, but failed to replicate that in the second innings under an onslaught from Travis Head.

"It [the all-pace attack] 100% worked in the first innings. We landed a few blows," said Anderson on the latest Tailenders podcast.

"I think that will be in their heads and I would not be surprised at all if we went with the same XI.

"I just wonder whether we lack a nuance with a bit of something different and a change of pace, whether that is a spinner or a slightly different pacer.

"If I have one criticism of England in the second innings [in Perth], they became predictable. Head knew they were bowling short, so he just sat on the back foot and hit his areas.

"It felt like everything has rushed. They were bowling ball after ball, over after over rather than taking some time and slowing things down.

"They tried to bring Root on but it didn't really work and there was no frontline spinner to just bowl four overs and change the pace of the game and make it slightly different for Head and give him something else to think about."

Watch the Tailenders first Test review on BBC iPlayer.

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Legendary all-rounder Lord Botham says England "might as well go home now" if they are unwilling to change approach for the rest of the Ashes series.

Ben Stokes' side are 1-0 down in the five Test series after an eight-wicket defeat in Perth in the opening game.

They were well positioned with a lead of 99 and nine second-innings wickets in hand at lunch on day two, but collapsed to 164 all out.

Travis Head then blazed a century as Australia wrapped up a two-day victory - the first in the Ashes for 104 years.

"It was horrendous, there's no other word for it," Lord Botham told PA News Agency.

"England need to fire up and fire up quickly. I'm fed up of hearing, 'this is the way we play'. If I hear it once more, I think I'll throw something at the television.

"If that's the way you play, you might as well go home now because it's going to be 5-0. They probably won't like me saying that but they need to need to get their heads around it. I want more pride when I see people pulling that sweater on."

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Former Australia international and Durham coach Ryan Campbell backed England's decision not to play their first-team batters in the pink-ball warm-up in Canberra.

England's decision to skip the match against the Prime Minister's XI has been criticised following their two-day defeat in the first Test in Perth.

The batters had limited time in the middle but they will still travel to Brisbane as planned for the day-night second Test, which starts on 4 December.

"I wouldn't be sending my guys to Canberra either," Australian Campbell told the 5 Live Cricket Show.

"That shows you have doubt. The last thing this team wants is doubt."

The two-day Canberra match begins on Saturday, with England having initially planned to send the Lions because of the tight turnaround if the Perth Test had lasted five days.

England will travel to Brisbane on Wednesday and are not scheduled to train until Monday. There is the possibility of an extra training session on Sunday.

Former Australia opener Simon Katich said: "Canberra is generally a low and slow wicket and Gabba flies through and swings.

"They feel like the Gabba nets will be the best way to prepare for that.

"The thing you would challenge is there are a number players who would benefit from time in the middle."