Major changes will surely be afoot as Ashes surrendered with two to spare
WHEN England won in South Africa less than two years ago there were no complaints about the county system, players not being experienced enough in the conditions or a lack of fast bowlers.
But when Ashes series go wrong, people search for deeper meaning and for answers as well as scapegoats.
This defeat at the WACA saw England surrender the Urn inside 15 days. It is also the third time in four Ashes tours they have headed to Melbourne and Sydney for the final two matches of the series with only pride to play for.
Captain Joe Root summed it up best, simply saying: “It’s bitterly disappointing.”
However, this is just the latest in an underwhelming sequence of results for England on the road. This was their seventh successive away Test loss and ninth in 11 if we go back to that South Africa tour in the winter of 2015-16.
Back then England played well in very similar conditions to here and the likes of Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad and James Anderson were two years younger. South Africa, missing Dale Steyn for all but one Test, didn’t have as good a bowling attack as this Australian team.
In the decisive Test at Johannesburg in January 2016 Stuart Broad took a series-sealing haul of 6-17. In Perth, he returned 0-142 – his most expensive Test figures – as Root’s men were swept aside by an innings and 41 runs.
Root, too, scored an important century in that match at the Wanderers. At the WACA he failed twice as England went down meekly.
So, despite the temptation to look at the bigger picture, the truth is England did not play to the best of their ability for long enough at any point over the first three Tests.
That failure was then seized upon ruthlessly by Steve Smith’s team, who in this match not only took England’s final six first-
innings wickets for 35 runs but then went on to post 662-9 – the largest score Australia have made in a home Ashes Test.
England’s defeat was all the more painful because for the third time in a year they lost by an innings after scoring more than 400 batting first. It happened twice in India last winter but this loss would have hurt more coming as it did in the decisive match of an Ashes series.
Credit must go to Dawid Malan, who batted brilliantly to post his maiden Test century and backed that up with a gutsy 54 on the final day.
Jonny Bairstow, who scored his first Ashes hundred, Mark Stoneman and James Vince also deserve special mention.
Indeed, Bairstow and James Anderson are the only senior players who have even come close to standing up over these first three Tests.
England have been badly let down by Cook, Root, Moeen Ali and Broad.
Thankfully the so-called ‘noname’ players in Stoneman,Vince and Malan have done well.
Craig Overton, too, has impressed in his first two Tests and battled bravely through a broken rib to continue bowling in Perth.
Of all the senior players to have let England down, though, perhaps the one who deserves most criticism is Ben Stokes.
The all-rounder would have been on this tour if it weren’t for his night out in Bristol on September 25.
Since then this Ashes campaign has become a circus revolving around whether he will be available or not. It must have distracted the team, especially when he flew out to play cricket for Christchurch in New Zealand before the start of the second Test in Adelaide.
Would England have competed better in this series had Stokes been available? Almost certainly.
Their tail has been blown away repeatedly by Australia quicks Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. The collapse in the first-innings of this third Test, the last six wickets falling in 8.2 overs, was no isolated incident.
England have not managed to bat for more than 35 overs in five of their six innings this series after losing their fourth wicket.
Stokes’ absence has lengthened the tail considerably. Then there was the absence of his bowling.
Root has every reason to feel let down by a man who he backed to be his deputy when he took over the captaincy earlier this year despite publicly saying there were “no excuses”.
The whole focus on the off-field behaviour of players on this tour would not have been an issue without Stokes. What has happened since has been another huge distraction.
England coach Trevor Bayliss didn’t blame Stokes for this Ashes defeat but did admit: “What I will say is, it changed the dynamics of our team.The Australians were too strong for us whether he was here or not. But it certainly has been a change to the set-up we’ve had the last couple of years.”
Bayliss also complained about English players not being allowed to play domestic cricket in Australia.“Cricket Australia won’t let them come out and play Shield cricket, that’s for sure.” But didn’t Mason Crane play for New South Wales last winter? It sounded a lot like moaning.
As for the lack of pace in his attack – not an issue when winning that series in South Africa – Bayliss said: “If you haven’t got fast bowlers, you haven’t got them. This is probably one of the hardest places to come for an English cricketer.”
Bayliss was also pointedly asked if he was still the right man for the job. “Well I think I am, you may not,” said the Australian. “That’s for people above my pay grade to make that decision, so we’ll leave it up to them.”
There is an argument for allowing Bayliss to concentrate on England’s limited-overs cricket and letting another coach deal with the Test side, who have undoubtedly stagnated since 2015.
That summer saw England regain the Ashes in Bayliss’ first series in charge. A lot has changed since and plenty more is likely to follow if Australia seal another 5-0 whitewash as they have done the past two times they’ve left Perth 3-0 up in an Ashes series.