George Bailey has admitted that confidence is low in the Australia camp ahead of the Ashes following their early exit from the ICC Champions Trophy.
In the absence of injured skipper Michael Clarke, Bailey captained the Aussies in their 20-run defeat to Sri Lanka at The Oval on Monday.
A defeat to England, whom they face in the first Ashes Test on July 10, earlier in the tournament contributed to Australia finishing bottom of Group B. Bailey has conceded that their performance in the competition, and in particular the defeat to their arch rivals, has caused a drop in morale within the tourists' squad.
"You're probably right, there is probably not a great deal of confidence there," Bailey told reporters.
"We said at the start that you need to start the competition well in order to get your confidence up so losing to England was a major cock-up.
"The weather then played its part unfortunately, that was a bit of bad luck because we posted a good score but that's part of the game I guess. There's not much more we could have done."
Bailey is not in Australia's 16-man Ashes party.
Joe Fish
