Australia's Ashton Agar has warned only the team's "absolute best" will be good enough to deny England a first 5-0 one-day international series whitewash of their arch-rivals. But the left-arm spinner insisted Australia "have no choice (but) to believe" they can beat top-ranked England in the fifth and final ODI at Old Trafford on Sunday.
"It's going to be tough, but I absolutely believe we can beat them: we have no choice (but) to believe that we can beat them," Agar told reporters at the Manchester ground on Saturday. "But we need to play our very best cricket against a side that's played really well four games in a row. We have to bring our absolute best," he added. Meanwhile the 24-year-old, half of whose eight ODI appearances have come during this series, admitted: "We have been outplayed, that's the truth. All we can do now is focus on us and look to improve in every area possible - batting, bowling, fielding, cricket smarts."
England, who beat Australia 4-0 in a five-match home one-day series, with one washout, in 2012, posted a men's world record ODI total of 481 for six on during a 242-run victory in the third match of the current campaign at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Tuesday. Agar was confident that his Perth Scorchers team-mates Andrew Tye (nine wicketless overs for 100 runs) and Jhye Richardson (three for 92 in 10 overs) would be better pacemen for their mauling in the Midlands. "They definitely would have been hurt after Trent Bridge. Everyone was," Agar recalled. "That was pretty incredible, it was a world record and unfortunately we were on the receiving end."
"But we have to keep learning from those experiences and it's good to experience that now and not in a World Cup." Amid all the blazing hitting at Trent Bridge, Agar emerged relatively unscathed with figures of one for 70 in 10 overs. "I was proud of the way I tried to fight back during that spell and tried to keep my cool," he said.
Australia arrived in England without banned star batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner, the former captain and his deputy given year-long suspensions for their roles in the Cape Town ball-tampering fiasco in March.
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