Buchanan hits back at Fletcher's remarks

In the latest move to gain psychological points ahead of the most-hyped Ashes series in recent memory, John Buchanan, the Australian coach, has come out with a detailed list of England's weaknesses, which he feels Australia are yet to "really expose" on this tour.

Buchanan's comments came in the wake of similar salvos from his English counterpart, Duncan Fletcher, who pointed to new signs of uncertainty in Australia's game and Ricky Ponting's captaincy. Buchanan said England's one-day team contained only three world-class fielders, none of whom are yet in the Test side; advised Fletcher to take a good look at the technical deficiencies of the top order, who have struggled against Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee; and said Andrew Flintoff posed more of a threat to the Australian batsmen than Steve Harmison, England's leading fast bowler.

"What I saw yesterday was very, very encouraging from our point of view in terms of the way a lot of English players were dismissed, their top order," Buchanan was quotes as saying in Sydney Morning Herald. "It would be interesting for him [Fletcher] to reflect on how [Marcus] Trescothick has got out, how [Andrew] Strauss has got out, how [Michael] Vaughan has got out through the course of the series so far with the Test matches in mind.

"I just don't think we've really exposed the weaknesses of the English team at the moment as well as we should have done," he continued. "That's partly a credit to England - Flintoff's bowled well, Harmison's bowled some good balls and they've had some support at times ... But I think they've got three fieldsman only. [Paul] Collingwood is obviously a very good fieldsman, [Vikram] Solanki, who they bring on, [Kevin] Pietersen is quick to the ball ... but other than that I think they are quite lumbering in the field."

With three more one-day games to go before the start of the Ashes, both sides will aim to carry on this psychological battle in the NatWest Challenge, starting on Thursday. It will also be the first time that one-day cricket's new innovations will be tested and will give a glimpse of the challenges captains and teams will face in ODIs in the next few years.