England's dream turns to Ashes too soon

So this is it. The famed and much-hyped battle for the Ashes has been decided in just 12 days of cricket. Australia after all did not need the last two remaining tests at Sydney and Hobart to claim the Ashes. Australia would very well complete a 5-0 whitewash of England Ashes tour. It’s just academic now. The reality is that Joe Root’s boys were never in the game. What we just witnessed was one of the most one-sided Ashes series and also one of the most insipid performances by the English team down under.

The English batting lineup depended heavily on Joe Root. He finished the year with 1,708 test runs, making him the third in the all-time list of the highest number of runs scored in a calendar year in test cricket. He did show his class in Australia too but then it was not good enough. On the other hand, the newly appointed Australian captain Pat Cummins made sure that the bowling line-up was all fired up.

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But the way, the English batting lineup folded up for a mere 68 in the final innings of the third test puts everything in a stark perspective. Scott Boland thrashed the final nails on the English batting lineup with a furious display of pace bowling. Eventually, England lost by an innings and 14 runs.

Cricket commentators and experts saw this as the worst battling capitulation in the history of the Ashes. Post-match, Joe Root said a few brave words, like, “We look at the next two games as a real opportunity to take something away for this tour.” But these are nothing more than what they are, some brave words. The next two tests are not going to give us a sudden revival of English cricket. The English batting certainly did not do anything spectacular against the Indian team recently, and that too on the home turf.

Tom Moody, ex Australian all-rounder and well know expert at the game put things in the right perspective for England. “A total demolition job from Australia. England have had their gaping holes in the test cricket covered for too long by two superstars, these are exposed away from home.”