Ashes 2025-26.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Some accountability from the media for unrealistic reporting, contibuting to the hype, and inflating expectation feels justified after reading the BBC link.

[Arthur Crabtree]

The public seems to want blood. But England are not going to complete the tour if they are exposed to this sort of extreme reaction. The coaches need to protect them from it. Leave the recriminations for later. It's not going to help. They are not losing because they are bad people!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Don't simple theoretical solutions usually turn out to be not fit for purpose. Like bazball, or fascism?

[GarlicJam]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cy0pqjp0jyqo

we've been saying all this stuff for a couple of years

What's that - that Bluey is better than Peppa Pig?

[bigfluffylemon]

Spot on DFM about cricket smarts. For me the Carey drop encapsulates it. Take that, and not only do you wipe 70 runs off the score, but you're taking 2 hours out of the game that Carey batted into the next day, and having a go at the tail under lights. England would almost certainly have been batting by lunch day 3, and have had the opportunity to get 100 on the board, a lead and some set batters by the time the lights came on.

You can tell England don't play pink ball cricket. Australia do have the tactics spot on. I can sympathize with Root when he thinks it's unreasonable CA force one on England when nobody else plays them and they're not part of the English domestic or home set up. But refusing to practise when given the opportunity rather defeats that argument...

[bigfluffylemon]

Vaughan castigating England for the pace obsession and saying that 83mph top of off as Neser did is what you need on pitches like this. He's not wrong, pace is nothing without accuracy, but this is the same Vaughan who for the last eight years has done nothing but bang on about how you need pace to win in Australia and how 83mph just doesn't cut it.

To$$er.

[sussexpob]

Vaughan castigating England for the pace obsession and saying that 83mph top of off as Neser did is what you need on pitches like this. He's not wrong, pace is nothing without accuracy, but this is the same Vaughan who for the last eight years has done nothing but bang on about how you need pace to win in Australia and how 83mph just doesn't cut it.

To$$er.

Agnew channelling his inner Nietzsche and launching into a speech proclaiming "bazball is dead" might be the most hilarious backtrack in sporting journalism history. But yes, I literally cringed watching Vaughan roll back on his opinion like the last few years had never happened.

[sussexpob]

The public seems to want blood. But England are not going to complete the tour if they are exposed to this sort of extreme reaction. The coaches need to protect them from it. Leave the recriminations for later. It's not going to help. They are not losing because they are bad people!

The press could not have been less hostile for the last few years, and even as late as the end of last summer were touting the idea this team were generationally great. The press even went as far to sell losses in the past as "moral victories", and have tried to rationalise everything the team management and players have done. They had defended things like the teams reaction to the Bairstow-Carey incident (Stuart Broad is still on his endless World tour of Cricketing podcast gloating about how many times he told Pat Cummins to F*** off that day), or things like the Duckett-Crawley refusal to play at Lords, even then launching bizarre attacks on India's players for their reaction.

I can't really disagree with the content of what these people are saying, I have been saying most of it for multiple years. I have said a lot of it in the last few days and weeks. But I am left asking how Jonathan Agnew can stand with a straight face and say Bazball only worked for one year and has been failing since, when he has spent all that time doing nothing but lauding everything the team does.

It begs the question why have these people been dishonest for so long? It took 2 bad matches and everyone suddenly came to a realisation we arent anything like what we have been telling ourselves? And not only that, but literally everything is wrong? The reaction, the extent of it, the universality of it.... its beyond question that everyone must have thought this for ages, so why have the team not been held accountable at all ?

[sussexpob]

The team also don't help themselves either, and I am not sure what they expect. Over the last few years they have claimed they are the saviour of the game, have claimed they are more entertaining than other teams, have taken self-righteous stances about being morally superior to other teams, and even when they have been at fault, have pointed the finger at other sides for their own behaviour. They have even defended game losing decision by saying they dont care about losing games..... you can't act like you did after Lords in 2023, and not expect your greatest rival to enjoy a large slice of Schadenfreude when your self-proclaimed game saving, superior style melts before their eyes. You cant make decisions like at Edgbaston in the same series, defend it, and then not expect kick back.

If Stokes wants the press to back off, then he should stop calling them has-beens. He should stop with the weird, hostile press conferences. He should stop sending out a completely disinterested Marcus Trescothick to press conferences, who then acts like he's some Mensa genius turning up to a village idiot competition. The team project arrogance and superiority everywhere they go, its not endearing. Most importantly, I am not sure at any stage ever have they said they got something tactically wrong, or have ever admitted any part of their strategy is ever wrong. They answer everything with the same rubbish... they are right, you are wrong.

Special mention to Ben justifying his golf holiday next week saying its really hard to play cricket all the time..... only minutes after he told the BBC the team had no place for weak men.

Weak men take the week off to play golf, Champions work on their game

[Arthur Crabtree]

The ECB were employing a 'client journalism' approach gping back to the post-KP period. Don't know if it's still like that.

My impression is the UK press (including MVP) genuinely thought England had a good chance of winning. It may be they were doing this to create interest, but I think that sort of game is more typical of the Aussie press. I think the English press were being genuine.

Consequently, maybe the media are partly being so hard on the players now, because all those sports journos have been made to look foolish.

[alfie]

Bit of fight shown on day four - Stokes and Jacks dug in well and at least made sure the spectators got a nearly full day of cricket . But of course all the damage had been done long before. Two bad losses , especially after twice having a decent to good first day , are hard to take. And sadly suggests the series could very likely be dead in another match - which is not what most were hoping before the tour.

Not really interested in all the press pile on or rants about how awful the management/planning/preparation are or how much better things would be if Foakes or Robinson or 43 year old Jimmy Anderson were here instead of the players who have largely (a couple of exceptions , perhaps) been selected on the basis of recent good form in Tests. I do wish the team and its spokesmen didn't make so many frankly silly comments in public (would never want Duckett in front of a mike if I had my way !) though I also recognise that these fellows are chosen for their ability to play cricket rather than skill in public speaking. Journalists in search of clickbait don't help...But I digress.

Despite this rotten start to the tour we should probably wait until it is over before picking everything apart. I'm not particularly optimistic about some massive turnaround ; but it will be interesting to see how individuals react to the hammering they've just undergone : who can demonstrate the resilience to bounce back and make a proper contest of remaining matches ... will be a true test of character. Pretty sure Stokes will be standing up : thought his after match words very honest and heart felt and hope they might inspire a similar spirit in some of his men , who it is fair to suggest haven't shown enough so far in the key moments.

More directly to the point of why they are failing (apart from the obvious one that the Australian team has - unsurprisingly - shown that they are a damn tough mob to beat in their own country ! Even with a couple of key players missing. Think many may have underestimated them ? Credit where it's due , eh ?)

1/ Dodgy batting line up. Lot of aggressive stroke players but mostly unused to Australian conditions : not many players come to Australia for the first time and thrive instantly. And it would be nice to have a truly "solid" batsman apart from Root among the dashers , to guard against the sudden collapse syndrome...only trouble being no one knows who such a player would be : doubt his name is Bethell. And of course even Root has had three failures out of four hits...

2/ Venues : not an excuse , but a reason. Perth and Brisbane are absolutely the worst places for visiting sides to face first up. Pure fact , the bounce is what catches out visitors new to the place. More in country experience helps but these days no one gets that. Not a coincidence that England's Ashes record in Australia has become much worse since these two became the opening pair : years ago it was always Melbourne and Sydney after the initial ordeal in Brisbane , and touring teams also had state teams to play ... but realistically those days are gone for commercial reasons so have to put up with it. Doesn't make it any easier though.

3/ Allied : poor preparation. I have some sympathy for them here because the modern world of franchise leagues and emphasis on white ball tournaments makes scheduling difficult. But I don't think random white ball stuff in NZ was a great idea ahead of this series . Would have preferred the Test players to have come to Australia earlier instead (even if just to play inter-squad games presuming meaningful contests with State teams were off the table). Meaning the white ball squad would have been composed of non-Test players - probably causing critics to moan about not taking ODI qualifications seriously so you just cant win Though results in NZ could not have been much worse anyway ...

4/ The bowling. The one bit that has really shocked me , to be honest. Especially after that first day in Perth. We all knew Wood's fitness was a risky matter , and the spin cupboard is bare ; but Atkinson has had an excellent start in Tests , Carse had surprised me a bit with his good performances in Pakistan and NZ (though his struggles in the recent India series probably should have been a warning) and Archer was popularly supposed to be well tuned up for this and keen to go...and , as said , they really did turn up on day one in Perth. But since then
Good days and less good , I can understand. And a major problem with this England side is their style of play , even on the good days , often sees innings truncated to the point that the poor old bowlers don't get
sufficient rest. But the way they fell apart in Perth when Head took off...and then the ridiculous scattergun stuff served up in Brisbane - total loss of any semblance of line/length ... just unacceptable ; and frankly baffling to me how they could collectively get it so wrong.

I am familiar with your views on the bowling , Sussex and I do think you have a point about too much over-emphasis on pace , which is usually important in Australia but has to be allied with an element of skill and control. However I also think your continued championship of Robinson as the solution is a little delusional : I don't really believe even Rob Key - and certainly not Ben Stokes - are into cutting off their noses to spite their face. Pretty clear Robinson became his own worst enemy and has fallen from favour for sound cricketing reasons other than a lack of mph on the speed gun. (I would love him to prove that wrong and bounce back to the Test scene , by the way. Just don't think it will happen, sadly)
And other than him , who else might England have picked with the old fashioned skills of an Anderson (who - much as I love him -was surely at his age unlikely to have made an impact this year ? ) Cook ? We saw what he was like at Test level in the English summer, did we not ? Woakes - with his past record in Australia ? Any more suggestions ?

Sorry , didn't mean to get sidetracked. The bowling thing has upset me I'm afraid. Just hope Tongue and Potts who are surely due a chance can come in and do something. Or Wood can get fit . Or Archer can start to live up to the hype and produce a spell worthy of an anointed attack leader...

Of course it would probably help if they could hold their catches ! After all the other stuff , one might fairly argue that the main effective difference between the sides in this match was the catching : if England had held all theirs like Smith and Carey , Australia would surely have been chasing nearer 200 than 65 yesterday evening.

Enough from me - arguably too much. I still as a cricket lover enjoyed some aspects of this match because at least it went four days Hope for better in Adelaide...over and out.