An Ashes tour that began with high hopes of taking home the urn has been reduced to a desperate effort to salvage some last vestiges of dignity as England head into one of the great occasions on the sporting calendar, the Boxing Day test.
The tourists have been savaged since meekly surrendering the series to a makeshift Australia outfit with a third straight defeat on Sunday in Adelaide, extending their winless streak in Australia to 18 tests going back to January 2011.
Post-mortems on preparations, squad selection, player behaviour and skill execution will undoubtedly come, but England still have two more dead rubber matches to negotiate before they are allowed to head home.
Team director Rob Key — whose job, like those of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, will be on the line if England succumb to a 5-0 whitewash — reckons the tourists have been playing at around 20% of their skill level in Australia.
That leaves plenty of room for improvement at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from Friday, when the traditional festive crowd will go a long way to filling the cavernous home of Australian cricket.
Despite his concern at the mental health of his players amid media allegations of some excessive drinking during a break between the second and third tests, Stokes said his goal in Melbourne and Sydney was clear.
“This has not gone anywhere near to plan whatsoever (but) I’m very, very determined to go out and win the remaining two games,” he told reporters at the MCG on Wednesday.
“When you know that you can look back on these first three games, and know that you haven’t been able to sustain a quality of cricket for long enough, you are generally going to end up on the wrong side of the result.
“(But) I’m very determined to leave Australia with something positive to look back on.”
Australia, meanwhile, have another handful of selection issues to settle with skipper Pat Cummins returning to rehabilitating his back now the series is settled, and spinner Nathan Lyon sidelined for a few months after hamstring surgery.
The home side have been dealing with such challenges since the start of the series, however, and will hardly see them as insurmountable given every selection gamble they have taken, or been forced into, has pretty much paid off.
The Australian players have been rejoicing in the triumph of “Ronball” – a jocular tribute to their phlegmatic coach Andrew McDonald and a parody of McCullum’s “Bazball”.
McDonald, in a very relaxed news conference on Tuesday, even briefly offered an opinion on how England had played in the series so far.
“We have been a little bit surprised at times,” he said.
“The way that we had seen them play, to what they’ve delivered at certain times, has surprised us. We can hypothesize around that, but that’s their problem, not ours.”
Concerned Stokes
An emotional England captain Ben Stokes on Wednesday said the mental well-being of his players was his main priority heading into the last two matches of the Ashes series.
The England players have come in for heavy criticism since Australia wrapped up an 82-run win in the third test in Adelaide on Sunday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series and retain the urn.
Media and social media reports of some players taking a “Stag Party” attitude to a trip to the Queensland resort of Noosa between the second and third tests have only added to that weight of pressure.
Team director Rob Key on Tuesday promised to look into reports of excessive drinking in Noosa and Stokes said it had all left him with a big job to do in his role as the protector of the players.
“With the reports and everything circulating around right now, my main concern right now is my players,” he told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the fourth test starts on Friday.
“How I handle this moment right now is the most important thing to me. The welfare of everyone in there, and probably some certain individuals as well, is the most important thing to me right now.
“This kind of stuff is something that I have firsthand experience of, how it can affect people. And my role as England captain is to protect my players as much as I possibly can.
“I will always protect my players as much as I possibly can. And right here, right now, that is my main job as England captain.”
Stokes has been open about the mental health issues he has faced during his career and took a lengthy break from cricket in 2021 to focus on his well-being.
The tourists have been savaged since meekly surrendering the series to a makeshift Australia outfit with a third straight defeat on Sunday in Adelaide, extending their winless streak in Australia to 18 tests going back to January 2011.
Post-mortems on preparations, squad selection, player behaviour and skill execution will undoubtedly come, but England still have two more dead rubber matches to negotiate before they are allowed to head home.
Team director Rob Key — whose job, like those of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, will be on the line if England succumb to a 5-0 whitewash — reckons the tourists have been playing at around 20% of their skill level in Australia.
That leaves plenty of room for improvement at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from Friday, when the traditional festive crowd will go a long way to filling the cavernous home of Australian cricket.
Despite his concern at the mental health of his players amid media allegations of some excessive drinking during a break between the second and third tests, Stokes said his goal in Melbourne and Sydney was clear.
“This has not gone anywhere near to plan whatsoever (but) I’m very, very determined to go out and win the remaining two games,” he told reporters at the MCG on Wednesday.
“When you know that you can look back on these first three games, and know that you haven’t been able to sustain a quality of cricket for long enough, you are generally going to end up on the wrong side of the result.
“(But) I’m very determined to leave Australia with something positive to look back on.”
Australia, meanwhile, have another handful of selection issues to settle with skipper Pat Cummins returning to rehabilitating his back now the series is settled, and spinner Nathan Lyon sidelined for a few months after hamstring surgery.
The home side have been dealing with such challenges since the start of the series, however, and will hardly see them as insurmountable given every selection gamble they have taken, or been forced into, has pretty much paid off.
The Australian players have been rejoicing in the triumph of “Ronball” – a jocular tribute to their phlegmatic coach Andrew McDonald and a parody of McCullum’s “Bazball”.
McDonald, in a very relaxed news conference on Tuesday, even briefly offered an opinion on how England had played in the series so far.
“We have been a little bit surprised at times,” he said.
“The way that we had seen them play, to what they’ve delivered at certain times, has surprised us. We can hypothesize around that, but that’s their problem, not ours.”
Concerned Stokes
An emotional England captain Ben Stokes on Wednesday said the mental well-being of his players was his main priority heading into the last two matches of the Ashes series.
The England players have come in for heavy criticism since Australia wrapped up an 82-run win in the third test in Adelaide on Sunday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series and retain the urn.
Media and social media reports of some players taking a “Stag Party” attitude to a trip to the Queensland resort of Noosa between the second and third tests have only added to that weight of pressure.
Team director Rob Key on Tuesday promised to look into reports of excessive drinking in Noosa and Stokes said it had all left him with a big job to do in his role as the protector of the players.
“With the reports and everything circulating around right now, my main concern right now is my players,” he told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the fourth test starts on Friday.
“How I handle this moment right now is the most important thing to me. The welfare of everyone in there, and probably some certain individuals as well, is the most important thing to me right now.
“This kind of stuff is something that I have firsthand experience of, how it can affect people. And my role as England captain is to protect my players as much as I possibly can.
“I will always protect my players as much as I possibly can. And right here, right now, that is my main job as England captain.”
Stokes has been open about the mental health issues he has faced during his career and took a lengthy break from cricket in 2021 to focus on his well-being.