England need to learn to close out one-day matches batting second if they are to have any chance of winning the NatWest Series, which they trail 2-0 after defeats by four runs and 39 runs to Australia.

The latter, at Lord's on Sunday, was more frustrating because the batsmen were under little pressure from the run-rate, but could not remain at the crease.

Luke Wright, the Sussex all-rounder who has opened in limited-overs matches for England but is now used as a “finisher”, admitted yesterday that he was at a loss to explain why England were not able to chase down 261 and 250.

“Everyone seems to be getting starts but we just have not had that match-winning innings,” he said. “Lord's was particularly frustrating as we bowled well and kept them down to a good total on that wicket. The good thing is that we are giving ourselves chances.”

England have not used productively the batting powerplay of five overs, which is called at the captain's discretion. In both matches, it was felt that the powerplay had been taken too late.

In the first game at the Brit Oval, it was delayed until the 43rd over, when the asking rate was already above ten runs per over; at Lord's, Andrew Strauss did not ask for the powerplay until the 45th over, by which time England had lost nine wickets.

“You need to be able to hit boundaries at the death and you've seen Mitchell Johnson come in and do that for Australia, so it is something we need to do,” Wright said. “I have just got to try to stay in that little bit longer to take advantage.”

Or, indeed, Strauss has to use the powerplay when the man best equipped to exploit it is at the crease. In the absence of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, Wright is one of the few big-hitting players in the side.

He denied that the constant tinkering with his role in the side had affected his game. In 14 one-day innings, he has batted at Nos2, 6, 7 and 8. “I've been told to go out, strike the ball and have a lot of intent,” he said. “It doesn't matter whether I am up the top or down the order.”

Today England will be without Stuart Broad and Joe Denly, who are still recovering from neck and knee injuries respectively. The only possible change may be to bring back Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire leg-spinning all-rounder, in place of Eoin Morgan.

The ECB has announced that Paul Collingwod, Owais Shah and Wright will be allowed to take part in the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League in India from October 8 to 22. Collingwood and Shah will be made available to Delhi Daredevils, the Indian Premier League side who bought them for £185,000 each but did not give either of them a game in this year's tournament, while Wright will play for Sussex, who qualified by winning the Twenty20 Cup.