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A good summary of the dismal situation:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cy0pqjp0jyqo
These statements stand out:
“Drive after drive. Edge after edge. Catch after catch. Bargain basement batting from a group playing like millionaires. Sachin Tendulkar once made 241 in Sydney by deliberately resisting the cover drive. This lot must think they are better than the Little Master.”
“‘We are trying to play the way we want to play,’ said Trescothick. ‘You have to have a style of play you stick to, don’t you?'”
Erm, no. You play according to the circumstances. If Trescothick really is that dim, he should be sent home straightaway.
“When a spinner is needed for the third Test in Adelaide, Australia can call on Nathan Lyon’s 562 Test wickets. England will have to gamble on Bashir, chosen off the back of a clip on social media and currently without a county contract. His figures for the Lions were 0-115.”
Absolutely mental.
At least we might have heard the last of Bazball..
Boycott and Trescothick would have been a good opening partnership
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
All the bazball talk just hides the fact that they aren’t good enough. The win in new Zealand covered up previous performances. In the big moments they don’t chose the right shot or ball. Australia have a clear plan and implement it. Also they lack belief when the going gets tough. Still not over but unless they start performing at the big moments nothing will change.
‘Bazball’ as a tactic to be be deployed at certain times when necessary could be powerful. If it becomes your entire way of playing then like any other, it loses the element of surprise and won’t work.
Hard to see past the final two Tests being anything but a victory lap for the Aussies.
When Bazball started it was belief that got England through matches. They chased some big 4th innings totals down on a regular basis.
The ashes though is about dealing with pressure and for once stokes actually stated the reality of it. Namely his players aren’t handling the pressure moments. Maybe if this team hadn’t been so hyped then they might have done better. With Cummings and lyon probably returning it looks even tougher. England have to take 20 wickets to win and they have only managed 12 in the first 2 tests.
The 3rd test perfectly encapsulates England. Some fine bowling and some poor stuff and khawaja dropped on 5 and scores 82. Have aussies 94/4 but then they reach 271/7:but the last 3 wickets put on 100. Start their innings brightly then bam,3 quick wickets. Entertaining stuff but just missing the patience and instinct the aussies have. Maybe just let them play their normal game. Can’t do any worse than just now.
They’ve just about made it to the 5th day
Again the timings mean I haven’t seen any of it… Apparently England were unlucky with the technology on a couple of occasionsGaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
A little better from England this test match but the Ashes have gone.
Having Aus 94-4 in the 1st innings and then dropping Khawaja on 5 who went on to make 84.
There were two dodgy decisions that went against England involving the technology.
It seems England have batted better this match but there are still the brain farts most notably Brook in the second innings.
Shows that England could beat Australia with a bit more luck and application especially with the bat.
Well they’ve finally done it. Mainly thanks to the bowlers on a friendly wicket.
Yet another injury though. So that’s Wood, Archer and now Atkinson who have picked up injuries with Stokes injured earlier in the year whilst for Aus, Cummins has only played one test and Hazlewood out for the series.
Are fast bowlers soft nowadays? I’ve worked out that England have bowled 458 overs in 4 matches this series. Fred Trueman used to bowl 1,000 overs a season on quite a regular basis back in the day and probably finished each day with a few pints and ciggies.
I know Trueman would not be able to keep up with the modern pace of today’s game but he was hardly a trundler. Just a great fast bowler with a great action.
I think it is because fast bowlers are bigger, stronger and fitter nowadays and consequently able to bowl faster.
The downside is they put far more strain on their bodies, especially when contorting themselves to avoid running on the pitch.
I expect they also get called for far more no balls now, in the era of the front foot law and when technology can show when they have overstepped by a millimetre.
Then again, fast bowlers on previous tours to Australia had to bowl eight ball overs!
It was a superficially entertaining couple of days but being a grumpy old stuck-in-the-mud purist I found the batting – from a technical point of view – rather unbecoming. Two days of Twenty20 Big Bash stuff doesn’t appeal in Test Cricket.
The ‘green top’ wicket was possibly too favourable for bowlers – perhaps due to the unseasonably cool weather reported in the Melbourne area during the days prior to the match – but for one who prefers to watch good swing bowling on a conducive pitch rather than double centuries ground out on unresponsive ones it was fine with me.
Fast bowlers might be stronger and fitter nowadays but that doesn’t necessarily equate to them being healthier: in the sense that the sheer volume of cricket today places a severe burden on their bodies, leading to more recurrent injuries and earlier retirement than their forbears.
A 4-1 defeat. Time for McCullum to depart and take his Bazball with him. It gave English cricket a shot in the arm which it probably needed but it has been found wanting at the highest level – and by an Australian team which is not exactly great.
England were poorly prepared and Australia batted, bowled and fielded better when it mattered.
Key and Trescothick can take a hike as well.
Adjustment should be pretty simple really… I mean its not like you’d go into a twenty over game and bat out 3 maiden overs on the spin.
Tactics were wrong but the players not good enough anyway although I concur the Aussies have seen far better teams themselvesGaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
I’m something of a nightowl and in the early stages I did stay up to listen to the morning when I could and watched highlights but I largely gave up with it all. I haven’t even made checking the score in the morning much of a priority.
I’m not a fair weather fan by any means, sat through my fair share of England dross in many sports, but I draw the line at knackering my sleep pattern for this lot.
Back to the drawing board.
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