yuppie wrote:Again in this test England had a chance when Australia were 6 for 60. Then the last 4 wickets nearly tripled the score putting the game well out of reach.
Through out this series England have had a chance to impose themselves but ended up letting Australia off.
No idea where England go from here, and to be fair i dont think they know.
This Ashes series has been far from ideal. One inter-squad warm up match, which was washed out. I blame covid as much as anything because you can't go into a marquee series without decent preparation. Would the British and Irish Lions go straight into a test series without time to prepare? No chance. The Ashes series should have been delayed by a year, but both boards need the cash. There was potential for the series to be evenly fought out, but the England top six had zero match sharpness.
Previous tours has kind of put me off test cricket, because England are going to countries without a fair opportunity to warm up. Previous tours to India have been a shambles in terms of preparation. Australia wiill go to England in 2023 with a proper tour and squad players even getting to play County Championship cricket before The Ashes series,
The County Championship itself is not the competition it used to be. Counties blatanly preparing low scoring pitches (and I include Yorkshire in that). The leading County Championship wicket takers is llittered with medium fast bowlers at best. As much as I like Luke Fletcher as a player and his battling qualities, can his game survive in the test arena? Craig Overton is a quality County Championship bowler, but even he admits he is not quick enough for the test arena.
I simply can't justify paying close to 100 pounds to watch an Ashes test match in 2023. The standard of County Championship cricket won't improve in two seasons.