England 2021-22 Ashes Tour

Australia bowling first looks grassy wicket fully expect England to be skittled by tea lol.

Had to laugh at some pre match comments

Jonny Bairstow on the England batsmen:

"People need to play in the way that has got them here"

Yeah with yet more incompetence and batting collapses .

Pat Cummins after the toss

"It feels like a bowling day. There is some good grass coverage. It doesn't mean we will bowl them out this morning"

Yeah that's right. The Aussies will be kind and leave it till one minute past midday Melbourne time instead .

So it begins lol another Duck too...

And another wicket, England just can't bat for s**t even in conditions that are similar to ones encountered in England lol

Joe root out after failing to convert a 50 again.

128/6 at tea.
5 dismissals out the 6 absolutely needless and avoidable.

The batting is the main reason England are 2-0 down already and the reason for a likely 5-0 series loss.

Unless and until England can get big 1st innings runs they are going to keep getting hammered over and over again in Australia.

185 all out.

Dismal.

3rd Test MCG Day 1 Close
Australia won the toss & elected to field
ENG 185 (65.1 overs) Root 50 Bairstow 35 Stokes 25 Robinson 22 Cummins 3-36 Lyon 3-36 Starc 2-54
AUS 61-1 (16 overs) Warner 38 Harris 20 no

Let's have some perspective, you can highlight bad techniques, & poor shot selection, but these players are doomed to fail. The blame lies in the hands of the cricket administrators, the ECB. Almost all the focus has shifted towards the white-ball game, & you can go back as far as England's climb to the top of the World Test Match rankings. Championship cricket played in April & May on bowler friendly pitches where medium pacers thrive, & a ball which stays in good condition for the whole innings. Some batsmen have even taken the option to just slog, in the belief that a good ball is round the corner, so they may as well try to get a few before it arrives. Then comes a diet of T20 & now the Hundred comp, where two thirds of county players have no first class cricket at all, & are then expected to pick it back up again in September on tired pitches, or ones which are deliberately prepared to contrive results to chase wins in title, promotion or relegation battles.
Test matches are played, yet when changes need to be made, through injury or lack of form, there's little or no first class cricket being played at that time. The same applies on tour, even without a pandemic & rain affected warm-up games, when changes are required your replacements are in a worst position than the players your dropping.
I give an example, Ollie Pope, regarded as one of our most promising batsmen. He has the first class stats to suggest that he's without equal, scores big centuries, & has the advantage of playing at The Oval, a good batting wicket. Yet despite what was a classic technique, (Ian Bell clone) he got himself in a mess with taking a 4th stump guard, in order to cope with the swinging, & seaming ball. It was a crazy idea, as it actually gave the bowler an even greater target & margin for error to take wickets. His form was compounded by injury, & despite being a decent player of spin, he looks like a man without a clue at International level, he's made Lyon look like Murali. Many pundits argued that we must invest in him, & give him the whole series to work it out. It's a close call, but with the Ashes still on the line, & a failing batting line-up, changes had to be made. Bairstow is not more likely to succeed, in & out of the side, & expected to perform miracles. All I know is that once knew how to perform in a Test Match. He was given the unenviable task of replacing bad boy KP against South Africa, & responded with a 90. Later it was decided that he had an issue with the short ball, he didn't, but got dropped, became a better player, scored a mountain of Championship runs & had a year rivalling Roots current run, 1,600+ Test runs & all as wicket keeper. Then he changed his game, & became one of England's best ever white-ball batsmen, but we have only seen glimpses of his best since, a hundred against Sri Lanka when he was thrown in at No.3 was a highlight.
In this current team, Bairstow only has Buttler who can't find the right tempo for Test Cricket, & then a long tail. Wood was promoted to 8, when he's a good number 10, Robinson is a good county number 8, Woakes could hold the lower order together, but can't take wickets.
In Stokes, Bairstow & Buttler, we have players who we can't get the best out of, for various reasons, despite the talk they are not playing their natural game. Stokes & Buttler both try to occupy the crease, & either get out defending, or pick the wrong time, or ball to attack.