• Australia v England, 1st Test, Brisbane, 3rd day

Warner taunts 'weak' Trott

Jonathan Trott fell to the short ball again © Getty Images

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David Warner claimed he saw fear in Jonathan Trott's eyes after England's No. 3 completed a wretched first Ashes Test at the Gabba by flicking Mitchell Johnson to deep square leg.

The dismissal ended a stay in which Trott looked completely lost for a response to Johnson's pace and bounce, compounding the weakness that had first been spotted during the ODI series in England that followed the previous Ashes series.

England are now facing a heavy defeat in the first match of the return bout in Brisbane and Warner had no hesitation in declaring that England's batsmen had "scared eyes", epitomised by Trott's "weak" response to the short-pitched challenge of Johnson.

"Our bowlers are bowling fast at the moment, England are on the back foot and it does look like they've got scared eyes," Warner said. "The way Trotty got out today was pretty poor and pretty weak, obviously there's a weakness there at the moment and we're probably on top of it."

He also contended that Trott needed to work on his verbals after a day on which several English and Australian players exchanged words.

"I think he's got to get new sledges as well because it's not working for him at the moment. Yeah he's worked hard in the nets on the short ball, we've seen him, but facing a 150kph short ball from Mitchell Johnson, the way to go is probably not trying to back away."

Warner, who made his own major contribution to Australia's cause with his first Ashes century alongside the captain Michael Clarke, said Australia had made significant psychological strides in their bid to regain the Urn after two days of near total domination of the tourists.

"Obviously getting a one-nil lead in a five-Test series is going to be massive for us," Warner said. "If Tests were back-to-back it would be quite tough on the English bowlers to try and back up but they've got a good break after this. Hopefully we can take the eight wickets tomorrow and go on from there."

Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here

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