Comparing England’s Ashes cricketers socialising between matches to a stag do is completely over the top and, as someone who has lost Test series in Australia myself, I have sympathy for them.
Having been in that dressing room as a player as recently as last year, I know that everyone would be so focused on trying to beat the Australians.
England are led by Ben Stokes, who is the most professional player I have come across, certainly since he became captain. He works incredibly hard at his fitness – the first to training, last to leave – and that rubs off on others. They’re a really dedicated group.
As for drinking alcohol in the 10-day gap between the second and third Tests? Well, it took place during designated downtime on a short break in Noosa, unwinding before the action resumed in Adelaide.
Personally, I drank throughout my international career, generally when I felt like I had enough of a window to then recover before a game. I’d even have one or two drinks during a Test match – but not if there was a long day in the field starting the following morning. I would be very conscious of being sensible.
The way I avoided scrutiny, I guess, was making sure my performance levels did not drop. You’ve got to make sure that either people don’t know about what you’re doing because you are discreet or your performances remain faultless.
Comparing England’s Ashes cricketers socialising between matches to a stag do is completely over the top
it took place during designated downtime on a short break in Noosa, unwinding before the action resumed in Adelaide
As someone who has lost Test series in Australia myself, I have sympathy for them
That’s the issue with these kind of things, isn’t it? If you don’t perform well, then every single thing you’ve done or not done on the field is under scrutiny. You open those floodgates.
When you see some of England’s dismissals in going 3-0 down in 11 days, they have been quite naive. And the bowling has been scattergun at times. We dropped a lot of catches.
Compare it with Australian batsmen building partnerships and scoring hundreds, their bowlers being disciplined and their fielders claiming some absolute stunners – they’ve taken the half-chances as well as the regular chances.
Add all those things together and the scoreline is not a surprise, but when that is your reality, it leaves you open to questions as to why you’ve done this or that and not something else. It’s just the nature of the beast.
The culture that Brendon McCullum and Stokes have created is relaxed, trying to build that camaraderie and foster team spirit at all times, because you need everyone fighting together to win Test matches, to win series.
Let’s be honest, there’s been some value in what they’ve done over the last few years.
The results at the start of this regime were good and it felt like we were making progress, and even though things have not gone as planned against Australia, to liken elements of the tour to a stag do is ridiculous.
An away Ashes can be horrendous. As much as players say they ignore the outside noise, it’s really hard to avoid some of it creeping into your environment.
An away Ashes can be horrendous. As much as players say they ignore the outside noise, it’s really hard to avoid some of it creeping into your environment
If you don’t perform well, then every single thing you’ve done or not done on the field is under scrutiny. You open those floodgates
Like Joe Root saying he was not thinking about getting a hundred out there, just focusing on helping the England team win.
Everything is under the microscope. Not many of the England players have actually played in Australia before, and until you have, no matter how much senior players prepare you, you don’t truly know what it’s like.
You only need look at some of the shots played over the past month to recognise that the pressure’s maybe got to a few guys, affecting their performance.
One of the frustrations is that during the last two days of the third Test, days 10 and 11 of this Ashes, it felt like England were actually starting to play how they should have played from the start. Obviously, it’s too late by then.
Everything about this series has felt a bit like England have been one step behind Australia, always playing catch up.
But as an England fan, I’d like to see Stokes stay as captain. He’s done a really good job, the players respond really well to him and tactically he’s very good.
It would be natural if he’s felt some sort of strain during this series because he does everything as one of England’s best top-six batters and, certainly in the last 12 months, one of the team’s best bowlers and its figurehead, dealing with matters away from the pitch.
But I love watching him marshal the troops on the field, he’s so passionate about English cricket, and I don’t really see any natural successor in that team right now.
As an England fan, I’d like to see Ben Stokes stay as captain. He’s done a really good job, the players respond really well to him and tactically he’s very good
The most obvious candidate if Stokes did go would be England’s white-ball captain Harry Brook, but I’d like to see him focus on his personal game
The most obvious candidate would be England’s white-ball captain Harry Brook, but I’d like to see him get back to the form he showed at the start of his Test career, scoring big hundreds and really focusing on his personal game before he potentially ventures into captaincy in the future.
When I retired 18 months ago I was disappointed because at that point I was thinking about making this Ashes trip, but to be honest, reflecting on what I have seen, I don’t think I’d have made any difference whatsoever.
Obviously, there has been a part of me that has thought I could have done a job – when you see Australia’s Michael Neser and Scott Boland bowling with the wicketkeeper up to the stumps and not missing length, for example – because being relentless with accuracy was my skillset as a bowler too.
But I am very much at peace with the decision that was made: my last Ashes at home was a really poor one and I didn’t have a great record against Australia either.
From a wider perspective, I’m really interested to see what happens now because England have spent three years showing a load of faith in these players building up to an Ashes series, so do they show faith in them and give them two more Tests?
Does Ollie Pope play again? Even though it feels like his career is going a certain way, I would potentially stick with him.
Yes, there’s an argument to bring in Jacob Bethell, giving him a taste of Test cricket in Australia, but they’ve played Pope in the first three Tests, believing he was in their best XI. Why would they change now?
On the bowling front, it’d be wrong not to play Shoaib Bashir now. Someone who they have groomed for two or three years, specifically for this series. With that in mind, you’ve got to have a look.
Does Ollie Pope play again? Even though it feels like his career is going a certain way, I would potentially stick with him
On the bowling front, it’d be wrong not to play Shoaib Bashir now. Someone who they have groomed for two or three years, specifically for this series
The England hierarchy will obviously come under fire because they’ve set this team up for an Ashes series years in advance and when you look at the performance, it’s not been anywhere near good enough.
All the talk beforehand was that we were sending our strongest team in however many years and I don’t think the talent’s an issue, but you need characters, you need mental toughness to win in Australia and I’ve not seen anywhere near enough proof that more than one or two players on this tour have that.
Quite often in the past it has been the case that people in power lose their jobs post Ashes defeat in Australia, but I don’t know if that is going to help the situation.
It’ll mean starting again. You can get new people in, but it could be back to the drawing board in terms of how you want the team to play, the players you want to pick, and a big upheaval has not always brought success in the past.
