Former England captain Michael Atherton was scathing in his assessment of his nation’s performance in Adelaide, having now fallen into a 0-2 hole in the Ashes series.
“A tour two years in the planning has unravelled in nine days of cricket,” he wrote in the UK Times.
He did praise the grittiness shown by England on the final day, particularly Jos Buttler, whom he compared to the great Geoffrey Boycott.
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“Although a beating competitive heart is the minimum expectation of an international team, England carried the game far, far deeper than many thought,” he said.
“The margin of defeat was a mighty one, and the fighting spirit on the last afternoon should not camouflage the fact that England, for the second time in as many Tests, have been out-thought and outplayed.
“Once again the batting has been completely underwhelming and they face a returning and refreshed Pat Cummins next as Australia announced an unchanged squad for the Boxing Day Test. Root’s Ashes dreams hang by a thread.”
On BT Sport, Matt Prior and Sir Alastair Cook found it hard to find positives in a match that England really targeted as a win.
“They’ve made too many mistakes in these two games,” Cook said.
“Fielding isn’t as good as Australia’s, the decision-making off the field to get to this point hasn’t been good enough, and you can’t afford on a tour like this to make mistakes.”
Prior said that sloppiness in both the field and with ball in hand was unacceptable at this level.
“Dropping seven catches in two Test matches, that’s a huge negative,” he said.
“Taking wickets with no balls, the amount of no balls that have been bowled by this England team. It’s those elements that will be as frustrating as no leaving as well as the Australians, or bowling a bit fuller and everything else.”
“People talk about one per centres, taking catches? That’s a 20 per centre. England aren’t at a place where they’re focusing on the one per cent here, one per cent there. Get your 20 per cent right first.”
Both slammed the team selection process that saw Jack Leach hung out to dry in tough conditions in Brisbane, while then not picking a spinner at all in Adelaide on a wicket renowned for having a bit of turn.
They were also dismissive of the idea of Saqib Mahmood, who is in Australia playing for the Sydney Thunder, earning a call-up to England’s Ashes squad ahead of the Boxing Day Test, saying the problems lay elsewhere.
“I find it quite funny that we’re talking about shipping bowlers in, when really, we’ve just spoken about batting – we need to get more runs,” Prior said.
“Where’s the conversation about our batsmen? Where’s the top six? Where are runs coming from? I kind of feel like we need a bit more focus on that.”
Former Test mainstay Kevin Pietersen requested that everyone go easy on England – while also slamming them for a “horrendous” display.
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1472875336186609670
“PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just give these England cricketers a bit of slack,” he wrote.
“An Ashes tour is incredibly tough & these are not normal times right now.
“Their batting is horrendous, I know, but go easy please!”
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