Uh oh, we’ve lost the ashes away….again.
We should really have expected this though shouldn’t we? We haven’t won a test in Australia since the 2011 series victory and in the last two tours to Blighty, we have only managed to scrape series draws. So why do I feel so disappointed?
We were probably all a bit overly optimistic in hindsight, especially Broady, but this series had a very different feel about it, and for good reason.
England had been playing some good test cricket in the two years leading up to this series, we had two seriously fast bowlers in the squad and a fully fit and firing captain. The Aussies had played well at home, but not quite to their usual level of dominance, they lost a test to the West Indies….at the Gabba of all places.
This probably all played into the hope, and throughout the series, we showed some signs as to living up to it. Day 1 of the first test saw us rattled with the bat, but come back and dismantle the Australians the same day with what was probably the best team bowling performance in the last 10 years….things like that had us believing.
But, ultimately, we couldn’t live up to the hype. Nobody got going in unison, we let our egos get the better of us with the bat, and we massively underestimated just how good a few of our opposition could be at home, namely Travis Head, Mitch Starc and of course Pat Cummins on his return for the third test.
Cummins announcement after the game was quite telling, he has said he wont be playing in Melbourne and probably wont play in Sydney, as the series is now wrapped up. He said it was worthwhile taking the risk and playing in Adelaide. This tells me one thing, they knew this England side could beat them…if they pulled their finger out their arse and played properly.
We didn’t. Smith decided to have a go on day 5 and looked in great touch before getting caught in the ring going for another huge hoik. Carse, Jacks all got scores and took the chase below 100, but we all knew they were never going to chase it.
My attention now diverts to the final two games of the series, meaningless really (apart from a few WTC points) but I am very interested to see how England will approach these games.
Do they throw in a few fresh faces? I think possibly so, Bethel has been waiting in the wings to nab that number 3 spot from Ollie Pope who had failed with the bat so far. England are obsessed with Bethel, and this could be a golden opportunity to get some ashes cricket in him and prep him for the next tour.
Personally, I am not convinced. A massive talent? Of course, but a test match standard number 3? Not for me.
We need a 3 that can and will bat time, consistently, to protect Root and Brook from the new ball. My personal pick would be a little left field, but James Rew of Somerset is a technical player, capable of batting time and also acceleration, he is young but as buckets of FC runs and tons behind him in the championship and looks every bit a test match player. The difficulty is, he’s a keeper and normally bats 5 or 6 for his county.
Tricky then, lets see how we go
Leave a Reply