Humiliation in Australia is a reflection of poor preparation, tactics and team selection. Urgent change is needed at the top
What a way for the Ashes to end. England’s performance with the bat across the series was terrible, with that final-day collapse completely in keeping. I was a bit taken aback by the pitches. It is a tough enough task to face Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland on decent surfaces but these were very bowler-friendly, and with the ball moving around at pace, poorly prepared tourists relying on young batters were never likely to excel. It is certainly not fair to look at the lower order in these circumstances, but the final impression was of Ollie Robinson backing away so far that he could hardly reach the ball when it was aimed at the stumps – a fitting denouement to a miserable tour.
Teams get outplayed by better sides, that’s part of sport, but to lose the Ashes inside 12 days indicates something has gone seriously wrong. There were mitigating circumstances in terms of the team’s preparation, which would have been poor even if it hadn’t been affected by bad weather and left Ben Stokes, in particular, coming into the series with hardly any cricket in him. But that’s where the sympathy stops.
