A few days ago the result that seemed a formality after day two in Perth was confirmed so putting us out of our misery, until the next time. England did show a little fight this time but not until the game was as good as gone. England have had the players to be competitive this time which is what makes this latest thrashing so frustrating. At least the coach has shown some humility in the aftermath but he’ll need to answer some serious questions around planning, preparation and selection.
I still think England can win a match or two on this tour
but our chances will not be helped by injury to Jofra, who has probably been
our best player to this point. This
means Carse gets to play another Test match or two which should be his last
because nothing he’s done since becoming ever present in the side merits
repeated selection. Ollie Pope has finally
been put out of his misery so can look forward to finding his groove with
Surrey next summer, he is good enough to come back again just not at three. Predictably Jacob Bethell, who has played
virtually no cricket this year replaces him but as far as runs on the
scoresheet goes, I doubt we’ll see much change.
Like the great Jacques Kallis, Ben Stokes should bat at three. Nobody in the squad has a better technique
and it could set the tone for the batsmen that follow. Also Will Jacks retains his place which means
England won’t have any control from the spin option and we wonder WTF has the
whole Bashir thing been about? No one
will be pondering this more than Jack Leach.
Despite all of this I still think if England can make a big first
innings score at the MCG we can control the game and go on to win. Even in the era of Warne, McGrath, Ponting
and the Waughs we at least managed to win a test on those tours. If our poorest teams could do this against
Australia’s greatest then this team should be doing much better.
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