Nasser Hussain says England’s showing against Australia in the Ashes has ultimately proved “no different” to past drubbings away from home.
England’s latest defeat on Australian soil was confirmed by an 82-run victory for the hosts in Adelaide on Sunday, meaning the holders wrapped up the series after just three of the five Tests.
After England lost 4-0 four years ago, this has been the first away series of the Bazball era following the appointments in 2022 of Brendon McCullum as head coach and Ben Stokes as captain.
And while Hussain commends the fact coach and captain have initiated a period of change, he says the frailties of old have again resurfaced.
“I quite like the fact they have done things different over the last four years since the last Ashes drubbing,” said the former England captain on the latest Ashes Daily episode of the Sky Sports Cricket podcast following the conclusion of the third Test.
“I do like the fact they have thought differently, they have planned ahead. If you carry on doing what you have always done, you will get the same results, so they saw we need to do something different. I quite like that, they’ve thought ahead.
“But actually, if you’ve come here and looked at them in the last three-four weeks you’d have thought ‘is it really that different from any other England side?’ They’ve not batted well, they’ve not bowled well, they’ve not caught well. Under key moments and pressure situations they’ve buckled.
“Every other England side apart from the (Andrew) Strauss side [in 2010-11] has come here and lost and lost convincingly. Joe Root has now played 17 Test matches in Australia; he hasn’t won one.
“So that’s why there was this rethink, but actually, even after the massive rethink and left-field selections and ‘we must have pace’ and ‘we must have batters that put bowlers under pressure’, actually we’ve ended up getting exactly what we’ve had on virtually every other Ashes tour and that’s what disappoints me because I thought this time, with this opposition, it might have been slightly different.
“It has been no different.”
Athers: This team are playing 25 per cent below their best
Fellow former England captain Michael Atherton said the fact that Australia were hit by injuries to key players both before and during the series made the nature of defeat particularly disappointing.
“We’ve been on a lot of Ashes tours – I think this is my 10th – and played in a few bad ones, watched a few bad ones, seen a few whitewashes,” said Atherton.
“Actually, this has been as disappointing as any for me because I felt England had the tools to do the job here or to at least challenge and I felt that there were weaknesses or areas to exploit in the Australian team.
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Ben Stokes reacts after England lost the third Test and Ashes series to Australia
“They have been beaten 3-0 in three Test matches by a team that has only had Pat Cummins for one game, that hasn’t had Josh Hazlewood for three, that hasn’t had Nathan Lyon for one and we’ve seen him go off with a hamstring strain and he probably won’t play the rest of the series.”
Referencing the Hussain-captained side that lost 4-1 in Australia 22 years ago, Atherton added: “Your record-breaking Ashes defeat here in 2003/03 was against a truly great Australian team and that is what makes it so disappointing for me here.
“An Ashes-winning captain of many, many years ago, Len Hutton, said you’ve got to play 25 per cent better than your best in Australia to win. What I feel about this team is that they’ve been 25 per cent below their best with bat, ball and in the field and that is what makes it such a disappointing three games for me.”
What now for the fourth Test – and what do England do with Jacks?
With hopes of regaining the Ashes having evaporated after just 11 days of play, England will head to Melbourne for the fourth Test, which starts on Boxing Day, aiming to salvage some pride and get on the scoreboard in Australia for the first time since 2011.
Stokes has already said “we’re not going to stop” despite the disappointment of losing the series.
On what England will now do with Will Jacks, who has struggled with the ball, Hussain said: “You could argue he should just play as a batter who bowls a bit of off-spin.
“So play at number three if you want in the next game. I wouldn’t be playing Ollie Pope in the next game, I’d either play (Jacob) Bethell or Jacks at three. I’ll have to think about that carefully.
England captain Stokes consoles Will Jacks after England’s third-Test defeat
“And that’s the other thing I’d have to say to this England – they’ve had four years to prepare for this Ashes series and they get to Adelaide and they’ve not picked a front-line spinner.
“Now, Stokes can look at that ball as much as he wants, and it was a good ball, when he got out to Nathan Lyon but that, for me, is like a moment they are playing their best spinner and we’re playing a part-timer and this pitch did spin on day four, day five.
“How did they get here to a situation when they’ve had so much preparation before a tour, how do they get to Adelaide and not play a front-line spinner?”
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