\n There was little to cheer over the five games.\u00a0Joe Root\u2019s first Test century in Australia was one, followed by a second, and Jacob Bethell reaching his first-ever first-class hundred.\u00a0With the right nurturing, it won\u2019t be Bethell\u2019s last.\n<\/p>\n
\n There was a brief moment when Sussex\u2019s own Jofra Archer shone with the ball, but overall, the tour was a disaster.\n<\/p>\n
\n Comments have been made about poor preparation and the lack of warm-up games, that the so-called Bazball approach (playing positively and without fear) was not conducive to this series, and that there was a drinking culture amongst some players.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the problems are more deep-rooted than this.\n<\/p>\n
\n Test match cricket is about testing the best against the best, over five days.\u00a0Yet in the first Test, England succumbed to a strong Australian attack in under two days.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rest of the series was not much better other than the fourth Test which England won, but the Ashes had already been lost.\u00a0Even that Test was a bit of a farce, once again over in under two days.\u00a0It was little more than a four innings T20 game or, in football, a penalty shootout.\u00a0Yes, some criticism of the pitch prepared for the Perth and Melbourne Tests is justified, but players representing England in an Ashes series should apply themselves better.\n<\/p>\n
\n The fifth and final Test in Sydney was worthy of the Ashes.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was in this game that Root scored his second century of the series and Bethell his first.\u00a0Nevertheless, Australia won on the fifth day.\n<\/p>\n
\n Captain Ben Stokes is the talisman for England, liable to do something exceptional when required.\u00a0But in this Ashes series he passed 50 just twice and in six of his ten innings he did not get into double figures.\u00a0Stokes is injury prone.\u00a0As England\u2019s most effective strike bowler he has a tendency to over bowl himself, thereby risking further injury as we saw in the final Test.It might be in England\u2019s best interests, and prolong his career, if the burden of captaincy was lifted from his shoulders.\u00a0He is too selfless to protect himself.\u00a0Another captain might.\n<\/p>\n
\n A major part of England\u2019s Bazball approach is that it has its foundations in limited over cricket, particularly T20 cricket.\u00a0It is dynamic and exciting, with balls flying to all parts of the ground and wickets falling at regular intervals.\u00a0But Test match cricket is totally different.\n<\/p>\n
\n There is just under 18 months until the start of the 2027 Ashes series in England.\u00a0That might provide just enough time for England to prepare properly for that series.\n<\/p>\n
\n Winning this next series must be a priority for all involved in England cricket.\u00a0After all, an Ashes series is a defining part of any England player\u2019s career.\u00a0Win a series, particularly in Australia, and you and your team mates will go down in legend.\n<\/p>\n
\n Take Sussex\u2019s Matt Prior.\u00a0He played in three Ashes series that saw England winning 2-1, 2-1 and 3-0.\u00a0(There was a fourth series in which Prior played which Australia won 5-0 but an Achilles injury limited his involvement.)\n<\/p>\n
\n When I say there is just enough time before the next Ashes series, I mean it.\u00a0Those England players who wish to be considered for selection in that series should focus exclusively on four day first-class and international cricket and avoid all limited over cricket, particularly the ridiculous Hundred competition and the India Premier League.\n<\/p>\n
\n Batsmen should learn how to build an innings over two or three sessions, and how to score slow, patient hundreds.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bowlers should hone their technique, with short pitch deliveries being the exception rather than the rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n County Championship teams should be allowed to field three overseas players, two of whom should be Test bowlers so that batsmen are tested regularly against the best.\u00a0Maybe then England players can learn to play four and five day games.\n<\/p>\n
\n Australia\u2019s Test team play a lot of first-class cricket in their domestic Sheffield Shield and were \u2018match-ready\u2019 at the start of this Ashes.\u00a0Many of their players will play county cricket in England in preparation for the 2027 Ashes, just as Steve Smith did when he played for Sussex in 2023, thereby becoming acclimatised to English conditions.\n<\/p>\n
\n If there isn\u2019t the hunger amongst some England players to prepare properly for the Ashes, they should move aside for those who want to beat the Aussies more than anything else.\n<\/p>\n
\n Andy Winter is a former councillor who worked in social care and homelessness services for 40 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was little to cheer over the five games.\u00a0Joe Root\u2019s first Test century in Australia was one, followed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115891730088064710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}