Former cricketer Michael Vaughan has said that the whole approach of the England Test team has been exposed during the ongoing Ashes, adding that a number of people will be dismissed from their positions after a 0-3 drubbing at the hands of arch-rivals Australia.
A dominant Australia wrapped up the final four wickets on Sunday, December 21, to win the third Test and retain the Ashes in just 11 days of cricket, extinguishing England’s hopes despite a brief show of resistance.
England’s stubborn resistance on day five at Adelaide Oval held until the second session, before Scott Boland dismissed Josh Tongue, sealing an 82-run win and keeping the famous Ashes urn in Australian hands.
“The whole approach of this England side has been badly exposed on
this Ashes tour and you don’t have to look far into history to know that heads will roll after a defeat like this,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“It is never nice to see people lose their jobs, but we cannot pretend that Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and those around them aren’t under massive pressure. Ashley Giles was sacked after the Covid tour here,” Vaughan added.
The tourists needed a victory over Australia to stay alive in the five-match series after heavy eight-wicket losses in Perth and Brisbane, with two more Tests remaining in Melbourne and Sydney.
“England thought they were coming to Australia with a new method that could win, but they have been proven wrong. They had already been caught out a couple of times by good teams, but failed to improve,” Vaughan said.
“You look at the way Ben Stokes batted in the first innings in Adelaide and Zak Crawley in the second. You think if they had batted like that in Perth in the second innings, the game would have been safe,” Vaughan added.
Stokes scored 83 off 198 deliveries in the first innings in Adelaide, while Crawley scored 85 off 151 balls, a clear deviation from their ‘Bazball’ tactics, two innings which ensured that the match went into the fifth day.
