Awful England ‘soul-searching’ but witch hunt ruled out
The England and Wales Cricket Board have opened talks with their counterparts at Cricket Australia over how to make the Ashes more competitive as the tourists enter what chairman Colin Graves admits will be a period of “soul-searching” after their 4-0 series defeat.
England were comprehensively outplayed throughout the series, but Graves is adamant there will be no “witch hunt” and that coach Trevor Bayliss retains the full support of his employers.
But there are set to be changes to the structure of Ashes tours in future after Graves said he was talking to James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, about how to make them a more even contest with just two of the past nine Ashes series this century won by the away team.
Talks are at a preliminary stage but one step will be to improve the standard of warm-up opposition. England played three lead-in matches against a Cricket Australia XI made up of second-team state players. Australia face similarly weak county teams when they tour England.
There is also a realisation that cramming five tests into less than six weeks is gruelling for the players. Under the new future tours programme one-day series will be split into separate tours from tests. It could allow for more time to spread out test matches.
“We have a very good relationship with Cricket Australia and we are already talking to James Sutherland,” said Graves.
No matter what changes are made to the schedule, Graves admits England must take their own steps to ensure they are better prepared.
Changes to the team are likely to start next (northern) summer, rather than for the upcoming tour of New Zealand, and Graves is backing Andrew Strauss, director of England cricket, and Tom Harrison, chief executive, to make the right decisions when they review the series. “Everyone is very disappointed. Everyone gave their all but we have to do things better going forward,” Graves said.
“There will be no witch hunt. We have to look at it and see how we can improve so in four years’ time we are better placed to win than we were this time.”
As for immediate changes, the options are limited. England have always viewed this tour as a whole so changes for New Zealand appear unlikely. James Vince and Mark Stoneman are the batsmen under pressure with Moeen Ali and the back-up seam bowling also areas of concern.
Stoneman will go to New Zealand along with Moeen, but Vince is sweating on his place. Gary Ballance appears most likely to be left out with Liam Livingstone a potential replacement.