England facing the time for ‘brutal honesty’
● Assistant coach Farbrace backs Root to become ‘very good captain’ for his country
England will be “brutally honest” when they ask tough questions about personnel and methods after their heavy defeat in this winter’s Ashes.
Assistant coach Paul Farbrace spelled out, with England digging deep after day four of the final Test in Sydney to avoid a 4-0 defeat, that all players and staff must be prepared for some straighttalking.
No one, it seems, will be off limits – although Farbrace was at pains to stress that captain Joe Root has been an impressive cornerstone in England’s tightest spots in Australia and will go on to be a “very good captain” of his country.
Australia piled up 649 for seven declared as brothers Shaun and Mitchell Marsh completed centuries – 156 and 101 respectively – and then Root stood firm for an unbeaten 42 out of 93 for four at the close. Still 210 runs adrift, the tourists’ slim chances of avoiding an innings defeat rest on their captain’s shoulders.
Acknowledging England have made a habit of conceding 600-plus totals away from home of late, Farbrace said: “There is [a problem]. We haven’t been good enough to put Australia under pressure, then you’re constantly chasing the game and you make it very hard for yourself.”
A tough series debrief is inevitable. “When you come away from home, it does expose issues you have in your team,” Farbrace added. “We have a choice. We either say ‘we’ve had some really good positives’ or we are honest and say ‘there are certain areas that are not good enough, and we’ve got to do something about it’.
“That’s every single one of us, everybody needs to look very closely and say ‘have we got the right people in the right places, and are we doing the right things?’. Sometimes those tough conversations have to be brutally honest.
“If England are serious about coming back here and winning in four years’ time, the planning needs to start in the next couple of days.” Root is less than a year into his tenure and Farbrace is confident he will be all the stronger for this winter’s tough tour.
“He is very determined,” he said. “We’ve seen in the dressing room, the way he leads, speaks, the way he is around the team that he is growing into and going to become a very good captain.
“He’ll have learned a lot in this series, and he will only get better for that experience – because that is the nature of the person.”
Australia had yet another dominant day. The nearest they came to a blip was when the Marsh brothers forgot, during their mid-pitch hug to celebrate Mitch’s century, that they needed to complete the two runs. Shaun Marsh, the elder, said: “That was my fault. Emotions got the better of me and I just wanted to give him a hug. I saw him starting to celebrate and lost all concept of where the ball was!”