Marcus Trescothick suggested Harry Brook erred at the toss on his England captaincy debut after Travis Head inspired world champions Australia to a seven-wicket win in the first ODI.
Brook chose to bat first, wanting to put Australia under a “bit of pressure”, and England were well on their way to doing that as Ben Duckett justified his promotion to open with 95 off 91 deliveries.
His dismissal saw England slide from 213 for two in the 33rd over to 315 all out, with nine wickets falling to spin – six of them shared by part-time options Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Short.
Head took advantage of being dropped on six to muscle his way to an ODI-best 154 not out off 129 balls, underpinning Australia’s highest successful chase in England and a 13th consecutive win in this format.
Labuschagne finished unbeaten on 77 in an unbroken 148-run stand alongside Head and Trescothick feels the Australia pair got the best of batting conditions under the floodlights at Trent Bridge.
“We’ll agree the pitch got better so the toss was probably a big factor in what happened,” Trescothick, England’s interim white-ball head coach until Brendon McCullum takes charge in the new year, said.
“The ball was spinning and they had plenty of spinners. We hoped the pitch might stay in that same sort of fashion and carry on but a little bit of coldness and the dew made it slide on a little bit more.
“It was a tough day. Losing is never easy but we did some really good things, some nice things, but just not for the longer periods.”
Trescothick, though, was impressed with how Brook carried himself in his first outing standing in for Jos Buttler, adding: “He’s been really enjoyable to work with. We’ve seen a little taste of his methods.”
England were on for a 350-plus total courtesy of Duckett’s knock and 62 off 56 balls from Will Jacks but an inexperienced line-up were guilty of gifting away their wickets by being caught on the boundary.
Brook was unrepentant at those dismissals against Australia, who were without Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell due to illness and thankful for three for 49 from Adam Zampa on his 100th ODI.
“We are out there to score runs,” Brook told the BBC. “If you get caught somewhere on the boundary or in the field then who cares? On another day that could go for six so I’m not too fussed about that.
“We want to entertain. Obviously we care but if you get out trying to score runs that’s the way we want to play.”
The five-match series next visits Headingley on Friday and Trescothick is aware finding a way to stop Head from running riot as he did in Nottingham could be key to their fortunes.
Head, whose century lifted Australia to World Cup final victory over India last year, was a thorn in England’s side in the drawn T20 series and muscled 20 fours and five sixes here.
“He’s a serious player,” Trescothick added. “The form he’s in and the way he’s going about his work is very tough for us. You can see how good a player he is and the impact he has had on all the games.
“If he gets in and gets momentum going, he’s hard to bowl at, for sure. Eventually the worm will turn and hopefully we get on top of that and get a bit of luck on the other side.
“Picking up the rhythm of 50-over cricket, we haven’t done a great deal of, today highlighted that big scores a massive part of playing 50-over cricket.”
Head, who also made a hundred to help Australia win last year’s World Test Championship final, said: “It’s nice to get a hundred, it was a good night at the office.”