HEADS JUST HAD TO ROLL AFTER ASHES HUMBLING

Giles sacked and Silverwood set to follow as England’s Test team has gone from bad to worse on their watch

ASHLEY GILES became the first casualty of England’s shocking year in Test cricket – and Chris Silverwood is set to follow.

The Ashes humiliation Down Under was the final straw with Giles, the managing director, paying the price for a series of decisions that backfired and resulted in four series defeats out of five.

But perhaps his biggest mistake was placing his strategic reputation and decision-making skills on the success of Silverwood as head coach across all formats.

Not only did he back Silverwood as coach, he also gave the former Yorkshire bowler selectorial responsibility to make him the most powerful supremo in charge of the England team since the late Ray Illingworth. It didn’t work.

Silverwood simply did not manage to improve the players at his disposal, nor did he make inspired selection decisions that could be held up as great successes.

It was quite the opposite with the issue of rest and rotation causing more harm than good. And then in

Australia, selection hit a nadir as Stuart Broad was left out of the side in Brisbane and Melbourne on surfaces that would have suited him to a tee.

The most dangerous bowler, Mark Wood, was left out of the second Test and ended up bowling most of his overs when the Ashes was over as a contest. Giles missed the embarrassment that was the third Test in Melbourne as England lost before lunch on the third day.

But when he returned in Sydney he was at pains to defend his decisions and point out it was the unexpected arrival of coronavirus and the expected contests against three better teams in India, New Zealand and Australia that was to blame.

He also doubled down on the idea that it was right to give Silverwood extra authority and responsibility in order to ‘modernise’ the Test environment.

Giles also lashed out at the first-class game and the England schedule which he insisted did not prepare players sufficiently for Test cricket. But he failed to grasp that the situation was not vastly different from the past in which heavy demands were placed, insisting players were able to put the lucrative Indian Premier League before the England team.

The Covid situation made life a little more tricky and if England had been fit and firing and able to compete in Australia things might have been different. But ultimately he has paid the price for failure and he won’t be the last.