Top order goes missing in fight

ALASTAIR Cook will retire an England legend but Mark Waugh’s condemnation for a “weak” demise in Adelaide is the bitter calling card of an unravelling Ashes defence.

The fragility of England’s batting without Ben Stokes was exposed by the game’s most lethal attack.

Cook (37) was the best of a bad bunch the bar is set higher for England’s greatest runscorer and 149-Test linchpin.

“Cook would be disappointed because he played well ... but that dismissal was a weak dismissal for a good player,” Waugh told Triple M.

If England was to retain the Ashes without Stokes then Cook and Joe Root had to stare down Australia’s attack.

Any deficiency against express pace was punished on a lively strip by Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood while bounce and purchase afforded to Nathan Lyon had a conga-line of left- handers second guessing. England has taken on Australia with a pop gun attack while its batsman cannot hang tough.

Root is discovering how the relentless responsibility can be all consuming. He is facing a herculean mental and form challenge with a 5-0 whitewash beckoning.

Root’s (9) mode of dismissal was disheartening, Cummins drawing a drive with a thick edge to Cameron Bancroft.

England even had its order wrong with Moeen Ali — who averages 34 — promoted ahead of keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow.

Axed vice-captain Stokes’s match-winning 112 in the third Test against South Africa at The Oval was the catalyst for a series triumph.

His first innings 58 and Bairstow’s 99 at Edgbaston sealed a 3-1 series win. That firepower is missing this Ashes.

Stuart Broad maintained Stokes’s “spirit” would live on this series but the reality is they have fallen in a heap.