LONDON: Joe Root’s England team is simply not good enough to
beat Australia in their own backyard and lack fast bowlers who can
scare the opposition.
That’s the harsh verdict from the
British press after the tourists slumped to a 3-0 Ashes deficit
following a painful innings defeat in Perth, leaving them staring at a
5-0 whitewash for the third time in four series Down Under.
Australia
have outbatted and outbowled their visitors in all three Tests and on
Monday regained the famous Ashes urn with two games of the five-match
series left to play.
“Many reviews could be conducted
into the state of English cricket and the lack of incentive for young
outright fast bowlers, the state of pitches — nothing like the WACA in
Perth — and the questionable coaching methods,” wrote Daily Telegraph
cricket correspondent Scyld Berry. “But the fundamental fact is that
Root’s squad does not contain enough good players to beat Australia
here.
“For an Ashes series in England, half of Root’s
team would be in contention for a place in a composite XI,” he added.
“In Australia, on the basis of the first three Tests, only Dawid Malan
and Jonny Bairstow would get into a composite XI.”
Former
England batsmen Geoffrey Boycott said not even the missing Ben Stokes —
banned from international duties over an alleged fracas outside an
English nightclub — would have made the difference.
“Nothing
we have in English cricket would have changed the result. I can’t think
of any player at home who could have made so much difference,” he was
quoted as saying on the BBC website.
“Ben Stokes would
have helped the batting and I would be surprised if he didn’t score runs
at some point over here because he’s a good player but we’ve been
outplayed.”
Former England Test all-rounder Vic Marks,
writing in The Guardian, agreed that England’s troubles did not start
with the Stokes incident, highlighting the batting of captain Steve
Smith, averaging 142 in the series, as a key strength.
“At
the head of the Australian team is the best batsman in the series and
probably the best in the world,” he wrote. “Steve Smith has been superb,
rescuing his side in Brisbane and forging the match-winning partnership
in Perth.”
Former England captain and The Times chief
cricket correspondent Michael Atherton said England’s bowlers have paled
beside their Australian counterparts.
“While England
have relied on two ageing bowlers who spearheaded their last whitewash
here — [James] Anderson has done himself justice, [Stuart] Broad has not
— Australia have revamped their pace attack completely, through the
compelling combination of Josh Hazlewood, five wickets to the good in
the second innings, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc — all younger,
hungry, vital and fast,” he said.
Anderson has taken 12 wickets in the series so far but Broad has managed just five scalps.
By
contrast, Australia’s top four bowlers — Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins
plus off-spinner Nathan Lyon — have taken 59 wickets between them.
Former
Ashes-winning fast bowler John Snow said England are having trouble
unearthing fast bowlers to shake up opposition batsmen.
“Fast
bowlers don’t grow on trees,” the 76-year-old told the Press
Association. “The wickets used to be better, they’ve got slower here in
England for years and years. They’ve been messed about by directives
rather than just focusing on producing good, true wickets.
“Fast
bowling is about physical ability, physique, the mentality, the
coordination. But you’ve got to want to learn how to bowl quick and for
it all to slot into place.
“You’ve got to learn how to do it yourself, the coaches don’t bowl the damn thing, the bowler has to bowl it.”
Meanwhile,
a 5-0 series whitewash and the playing futures of England veterans
Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad were focal among Australia’s reaction to
winning back the Ashes on Tuesday.
“Cricket is getting
shorter, and not just in the ways intended. It has taken Australia 15
days to regain the Ashes that they lost in 14 days just over two years
ago,” The Australian’s Gideon Haigh wrote. “Kudos to the Australians.
They have played substantially the better cricket for significantly
longer phases.”
Haigh added: “But 3-0 so soon? It leaves
the summer’s showpiece Tests, Boxing Day in Melbourne and New Year’s in
Sydney with no bearing on the series.”
Catherine
McGregor, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, noted:
“England has been comprehensively routed. There are no easy or obvious
answers to their problems — which now appear to include cascading mental
disintegration.
“Another whitewash looms. Their batting and bowling are both deficient.
“Cook is now entering the twilight of his career.” Former cricketer Brett Geeves described the tourists as ‘putrid’.
“England
have been putrid. But it’s not just against Australia they’ve been
poor. They’ve actually lost their last seven away Test matches in a row,
with three of those losses coming by way of an innings defeat,” Geeves
wrote for Fox Sports.
The Courier Mail’s Robert Craddock
said the true gauge of Australia’s abilities will be when they face
South Africa early next year.
“For all of Australia’s
dominance in this series, the true measure of their worth as an emerging
cricket team will be how they measure up in the four-Test series in
South Africa in March,” he said.
“The victorious Ashes campaign has confirmed a lot of the things suspected about this constantly remodelled Australian team.
“Steve Smith is a cut above the rest. It’s remarkable what one brilliant player is capable of.”
The
Age’s Greg Baum added: “Australia can be well pleased with this Ashes
reclamation, for it was at a level more of a triumph than their previous
two successes. They are not yet a great team, but they have done a
great thing.”
